Joe Boyd - Fracking law for sale

The Green Wash authors take a look at the blog of long-time anti-fracking campaigner Joe Boyd.

Part 1 - Chief Superintendent Mark Roberts & the well orchestrated state masterplan

Joe Boyd, long time anti-fracking and environmental activist, has spent a "long and tiring six years defending the right to peacefully protest against all the power of the UK State". A campaign which ultimately "led to defeating the richest man in Britain in the Court of Appeal".

There are now estimated to be over 400 anti-fracking groups in Britain and Ireland with many social media groups, pages and timelines listing thousands of followers and members. However, when you look at the reality of the members list on these sites what you see is the same names from all over the country appearing on every site. The majority of those interested in what is happening on the fracking front are not active campaigners, or even what has been termed 'keyboard warriors', many no longer read or contribute to posts, their names just existing in the ether world of the internet, a faceless name on a list. Where you do find active members administering groups and pages you quickly discover they are the organisers and driving force behind more than one group in their local area. What this cross group network has managed to ensure is the capacity for a small number of people to hold the balance of power through a "hierarchical campaign structure". This power is then used to exercise total control over group membership, income and expenditure, meetings, information dissemination and, most importantly of all, the dictatorial ability to set agendas and drive narratives. Nowhere has this become more noticeable than in Lancashire.

Ian Stanley Roberts, formerly a Human Resources Manager in the civil service, Preston, is Chair of Residents Action on Fylde Fracking (RAFF), Chair of Frack Free Lancashire (FFL), Chair of Frack Free Lancashire Finance Committee, part of Renewable Energy Alliance Lancashire (REAL) and a member of The Green party. In 2013 Roberts, representing The Green Party, stood in the Lancashire County Council elections for St Annes South, in 2017 again, in St Annes South and in 2018 in the Fylde Borough Council Heyhouses by-election.

RAFF, formed in 2011, states it is a group for "local Fylde residents who are calling for an immediate halt to shale gas extraction (by fracking) pending a thorough evaluation of the risks to health, environment, tourism, agriculture, jobs and communities". FFL claim to be "an umbrella group for many smaller community and resident groups all with the single aim of stopping fracking in Lancashire. It is widely recognised, both in the UK and overseas!". REAL, formed in 2015, are described in their launch statement published on Roseacre Awareness Group (RAG) website as "a new group, created by local residents with the support of Friends of the Earth, that aims to support renewable energy schemes and opportunities in Lancashire and the neighbouring regions". However, we, the authors, have been able to find very little on the group other than a launch statement and banner. It is also understood that Jas Singh, the driving force behind the group, has had no involvement for a considerable period of time.

The authors of The Green Wash have been unable to find any record of any minutes for Frack Free Lancashire and neither minutes, nor accounts, for Frack Free Lancashire Finance Committee.

The rational often given for not publishing minutes of meetings, or financial statements, is so the oil or gas company you are campaigning against do not know what you are doing, and, phrased in this way, this total secrecy makes sense. On the other hand, however, this also makes, what should be public knowledge, impossible to find. If you are a public group with an income and expenditure you should have the same accountability and transparency as all other not-for-profit, non charitable status, public groups.

It is understood by the authors that other umbrella groups, such as Frack Free East Yorkshire (FFEY), do not publish their minutes or financial accounts on their website either. However, we are also aware that meeting minutes and financial accounts are produced and then circulated at the appropriate meeting. The authors have also been advised by several campaigners that FFEY disseminate a great deal of information, to those who are members of an affiliated group, via email. If for any reason you have a difference of opinion with either, or both, of the two main administrators, Richard Howarth and Jennie Dixon, they will remove you from the mailing list. You will also be blocked by FFEY and affiliated groups from seeing Facebook pages and groups and Twitter feeds.

If other groups operate in this way it is obvious that what they now have is control of what people do and how people do it. Those excluded from the group no longer have access to information and it is in this way those few, now in control, have the ability to totally dictate the narrative unopposed.

On the 5th April 2018 Counterbalance, the on-line blogsite featuring news and current affairs from mainly St. Anne's and the Fylde, published a short article entitled "Runners and Riders". Amongst the featured candidates standing in the Heyhouse Ward by-election can be found non other than Roberts. The unknown author writes of him "...We are also aware he has connections into, and works with, the Police, in a "lay volunteer" mediation capacity, as part of their Restorative Justice operation".

For those who have never come across Restorative Justice it is the mechanism which "seeks to bring all parties involved in an incident together to play a part in repairing the harm caused and find a positive way forward. It can be used in a wide range of cases from low level offending to grave and serious crimes".

The author than goes on to state that Roberts "is well known personally to us and we declare that at this point.

We find him to be a solid, reliable, sensible and thoughtful individual who would make an excellent local councillor."

The authors of The Green Wash have been unable to ascertain how long Roberts has been mediating for the Police, who the author of Counterbalance is and how long the author and Roberts have known each other.

In February 2012 Roberts came to prominence on the Fylde when, on returning home with his wife from a trip to Manchester, they found £21,480 in cash had been left on their doorstep in a carrier bag placed inside a wicker basket. The police held the money for 28 days before returning it back to the couple. Both Roberts and his wife were members of the committee of the Friends of Hope Street Park who were fund raising at the time for £400,000 for a three-part scheme of work designed to bring the park and it's facilities up to date.

The unusual donor who left the money on the doorstep has never been found.

On Tuesday 10 December 2013 Roberts, along with close ally Tina Louise Rothery, gave evidence during a hydraulic fracturing debate to a Parliamentary Select Committee, the Economic Affairs Committee, in the House of Lords. On presenting his statement Roberts claimed the founder members of RAFF were now against fracking but when the group had first formed they had started out with an open mind: "[...] we formed two years ago, though, we were genuinely open minded about this industry. We thought that maybe with tight regulation it would be worth backing."

The authors of The Green Wash have been assured by several long-term campaigners that the aim of the group was always to oppose hydraulic fracturing and that feelings of frustration were felt, by the then other members outside of a small, controlling, select group, that no-one else had been asked to attend who would have had a more in-depth understanding of the fracking process and any potential negative impacts on ground water reservoirs and aquifers.

But Roberts also had a family connection that he had never, except to the the trusted few, disclosed; his brother is none other than Chief Superintendent Mark Roberts. The long held secret became public knowledge the day John McDonnell visited Preston New Road. Standing in Maple Farm's car park, a person thought to be a close friend of Roberts, was overheard confronting him about it.

Mark Roberts began his police career in 1993 when he joined the Greater Manchester Police (GMP). Roberts held both uniform and investigative roles at each rank up to Superintendent, "including leading a syndicate on the GMP Major Investigation Team as Head of Investigations at the North West Counter Terrorism Unit". "During that time, he [...] was a public order and firearms strategic commander and in charge of the tactical response to the 2011 riots in Manchester and Salford, where he was Silver Commander, some two years before the Barton Moss [anti-fracking] protests began."

Chief Superintendent Mark Roberts

Ian Roberts

Green Party

Frack Free Lancashire (FFL)

Residents Action on Fylde Fracking (RAFF)

Spot the Roberts Brothers at a family gathering

In his recent blog Joe wrote "those of us in the Anti-fracking movement since 2014 at Barton Moss in Salford will remember Mark Roberts as Chief Superintendent (Silver commander) who created public and media discourse, by alleging a flare was shot at a police helicopter from the camp".

Sophie Baxter, speaking for Frack Free Greater Manchester, stated the "allegations are untrue. The camp has a safe space policy that includes no violence and no aggression. Anyone seen firing a flare would have been asked to leave the camp and report themselves to the authorities." Adding "it was the second time the police had wrongly accused protesters of firing a flare at a helicopter, the previous occasion being New Year's Eve. All along the behaviour of Greater Manchester Police has been outrageous."

Joe's opinion, that it was in reality just an excuse to enable the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) "to obtain a search warrant for the anti-fracking camp, which was situated on Barton Moss road", concurs with Ms Baxter's statement. He further writes "many people are aware, if something like this had happened, no search warrant would have been required under terrorism law and the camp would have been searched that night by specialist officers, not some three days later. Too many, it was a well-orchestrated state masterplan to demonise the camp and anti-fracking activists through the media, which they did, but not with the success they might have been hoping for."

The Salford Star labelled the incident "Flaregate", and wrote, in an article on the report by the Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner's Independent Panel on the Policing of Protests and Demonstrations into events at the Barton Moss anti-fracking protests, "Flaregate happened when the pilot of a police helicopter allegedly reported that a flare was fired at it as it came in to land at the Airport next to Barton Moss, even though no evidence was produced by the police which went public on the `incident'.

The report states, incredibly, that "The panel does not believe that GMP has a responsibility to `prove' incidents it publicises", then adds "as a public body police have a duty not to mislead the public and it would be extraordinary if any such incident had been fabricated."

However, even now, no evidence has been produced by the police to back up the allegation. The report meekly states "with hindsight, the panel believes more information about the incident should have been issued. This could have included media interviews with the pilot, or the pilot's statement could have been issued to the media."

The authors of The Green Wash also believe that in order for the police's accusation of the release of a flare made against those residing at Barton Moss Camp to have carried even the smallest amount of credibility then some sort of evidence supporting the allegation should have been released.

Coming soon, Part 2 - Amanda Webster, consultant to beleaguered contractors