Occupy & the BIBA Awards

Sitting adjacent to the A583 on top of a small hill in a field on the outskirts of the village of Little Plumpton near Blackpool can be found Cuadrilla Resources Limited’s (Cuadrilla) extremely controversial hydraulic fracturing site, currently the only ‘active’ high volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) site in England.

Still in the exploratory stage, the Preston New Road well site has been dogged with issues which have seen Cuadrilla lurch from one major obstacle to the next in an attempt to extract gas from the Bowland Shale. And, despite much heralded headlines in 2011 which trumpeted Cuadrilla’s promise to recover 10-20% of the 200 trillion cubic feet of gas they estimate to be under the Fylde coast, a find which Lord Browne, former CEO of Cuadrilla, claimed could satisfy the UK’s gas consumption “for 56 years”, it is looking increasingly unlikely Cuadrilla will deliver on that promise.

A public outcry followed Cuadrilla’s announcement to frack Preston New Road with a long and sustained campaign opposing them every step of the way costing the company millions in delays. By August 2018 residents of Lancashire had paid almost £7m for just over 12 months of on-going fracking related policing costs.

However, the campaign to thwart Cuadrilla’s hydraulic fracturing ambitions has not been without it’s issues. Disagreements within local campaign groups began to grow and, with the large influx of anti-frackers to the area seemingly exacerbating these ever growing divides, the negative toll on the protests began to show. The roll of Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the Green Party, in what has now been termed “The Green Wash”, also began to become apparent.

In 2016, following a high profile court case brought against Tina Louise Rothery by Cuadrilla Resources, Ms Rothery was awarded a life-long membership of the Green Party. However, fellow campaigners and residents claim that concerns about Ms Rothery being brought to the attention of the Green Party and environmental groups have been ignored.

In October 2011 the Occupy movement hit the headlines as two encampments were set up, one in St James’s Park and one outside St Paul’s Cathedral. It was here, at the heart of a movement described as anti-capitalist but one which also raised environmental and democratic issues, Tina Louise Rothery first came to prominence appearing on main stream news channels such as RT as well as alternative news channels. November of the same year saw the opening of Occupy’s Bank of Ideas with Ms Rothery cutting the ribbon at the opening ceremony.

Tina Louise Rothery opens the Bank of Ideas

By 2013 Ms Rothery had become firmly embedded within the anti-fracking movement and presumably, carrying with her the Occupy ethos, had been campaigning against Cuadrilla Resources Limited in Balcombe and Lancashire and at Barton Moss against Ireland Gas Limited. However, her work related Facebook page, Tina Orbit, created whilst employed by Orbit International, paints a very different picture, with posts promoting large companies and descriptions of golfing breaks in Thailand alongside the promotion of other expensive holidays seemingly very far removed from the stated ideals of Occupy.

On 15th November 2013 using the Tina Orbit page Ms Rothery published a link to a digital group who were on the verge of starting a campaign promoting Blackpool. In responding to a question regarding funding Ms Rothery stated “Don't believe it is the council Steve. DigitalGuys, working in partnership with Monster Media, a major international advertising agency and global leaders in non-traditional advertising campaigns, are going to let the world know how awesome Blackpool can B!

Previously, Monster Media have created campaigns for brands such as Vodafone, Levis and Disney with the advertising being shown in Times Square and Las Vegas to name but two epic locations. Now this type of campaign is coming to the world famous town of Blackpool and you are all invited to join in the fun.”

Surely anyone who had generated such a high profile within an anti-capitalist movement and who truly believed in the Occupy message they were carrying to the world would never have lauded a “major international advertising agency” who had undertaken work for the likes of Disney or indeed praise the BBC?

By 2013 Babs Murphy, chief executive of the North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce and a strong proponent of hydraulic fracturing, had nailed her colours to the mast and they had come down firmly on the side of Cuadrilla.

September 2013 Ms Rothery and her company were to found at the BIBA Awards, in her delight at the event and reporting on a day spent at the Chamber of Commerce selecting finalists for the awards’ evening Ms Rothery posted “Thanks go to N&W Lancashire Chamber of Commerce for warm hospitality, professional hosting and a well-run day; very much appreciated.”

The evening of the BIBA’s arrived and Ms Rothery had an absolutely splendid night presenting an award and mingling with other guests and dignitaries including the sponsors of the evening.

Prior to the evening Ms Rothery was fully aware Cuadrilla would be present. However, she attended the event as planned to present the Winning in E-Business Award, apparently her enthusiasm to be part of the BIBA’s far outweighing her Occupy and anti-fracking sympathies. Writing for her blogspot Ms Rothery waxes lyrical about how upsetting it was to find Cuadrilla there, but we know from the same post that she already knew they would be in attendance.

Highlighting “winning e-business” on Ms Rothery’s post, dated 19 September 2013 and titled “Worlds Collide”, takes you directly to a website belonging to a company calling themselves “Soap Media”.

Soap Media, based in Blackpool, was started in 2005 by two brothers and rapidly rose in the world of the electronic business. Working with companies such as Slazenger on the Cricket World Cup and, in 2009 working with companies from the law and finance sectors led to their first “million pound spend on Google Adwords”. Soap Media are also heavily involved in the private landlord sector.

We understand everyone needs employment, we also understand how important it is to support local business, especially through difficult economic times, but no one, absolutely no one, who had been such a high-profile representative of the Occupy movement and an equally high-profile committed anti-fracker would have attended an evening organised by Babs Murphy and the North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce and presented an award to a company involved in spending a million pounds with Google and at which Cuadrilla Resources Limited were present. Surely anyone with any integrity or honesty would have objected to being there and at the very least boycotted the evening?

Why, would anyone so passionate about the ills of capitalism and expressing concern for the environment and future generations join Occupy and the campaign against fracking yet not, when the best and most opportune moment possible presented itself, surrounded by Lancashire business people many of whom expecting to reap some future rewards from association with the company, not make a stand against Cuadrilla?

On the 7th November 2013 in response to an article, no longer available, Ms Rothery posted “Fantastic people doing wonderful things… thoroughly enjoyed the stand of goods too at N&W Lancashire Chamber of Commerce Women in Business Lunch at Preston Marriott Hotel today. *That’s Christmas sorted! Thanks to Richard at the Chamber for usual expertise and brilliance in pulling together an inspiring room.” This is, of course, the same Chamber of Commerce that are fully in support of Cuadrilla.