Hastings protestors say: '˜Don't frack with Sussex'

Activists from Don’t Frack With Sussex held the protest to highlight the bank’s majority ownership of fracking firm Third Energy.

Friends of the Earth called on activists across the UK to target the leading bank.

The campaign is a response to Barclays’ subsidiary Third Energy having its application to frack in Ryedale, North Yorkshire green-lighted by the Government.

Representatives from Don’t Frack with Sussex entered the branch, lodged a formal complaint and delivered more than 50 letters from Barclays customers calling on them to stop investing in shale gas extraction. Activists also collected more than 200 signatures.

Artist Beccy McCray said: “To stay within safe levels of global warming, 80 per cent of fossil fuels need to stay in the ground. And yet companies like Barclays are helping bring this dangerous experimental method to life to get even more out of the earth. The results from the US are in. It’s unsafe, unclean and unfair on communities.”

Fashion designer Sofie Greatorex said: “Organisations like Barclays are creating a monster. Just this week we’ve learned UK Oil and Gas has been given the green light to drill for tight-oil – a process similar to fracking – in the South Downs National Park. They’re scraping the fossil fuels barrel in areas that we are supposed to be protecting for future generations. It’s frightening.”

A Barclays spokesman said: “Through Global Natural Resources Investments, Barclays has a majority stake in Third Energy: a British business with a history of investment and good corporate citizenship in North Yorkshire. Third Energy has been drilling, developing and producing gas in the region for more than 20 years, with an excellent environmental and safety record. We are conscious of the concerns of local communities and other groups over potential environmental and community impacts, which we take seriously and will continue to monitor. We have worked closely with Third Energy to ensure its plans are compatible with our values.”

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