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| Start of Day 5 at Longridge |
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| Arriving at PNR |
Breakfast at Jai and Andy's followed by washing down a couple of paracetamol. Preston New Road today! This was to be a shorter 19 miles from Longridge but a more complex route with miles of it going on country footpaths off the roads. Navigation was going to be tricky. At short notice Jai ran off 20+ A4 sheets off our online plotaroute map which were hastily put together in a long line, folded together and handed to Nigel as the 'responsible adult'. The cars were loaded and we set off for Longridge.With so much of our route being off road we were going to be hard for the Police to keep an eye on. Relations between the Police and the Anti Fracking Activists at Preston New Road had taken a bit of a nosedive following some heavy handed and fractious encounters. So we were keen to finish our walk and not have any unnecessary hold ups.
At Longridge about a dozen people joined us for our final day. A cameraman was on hand from Lancashire TV after a short walk out of Longridge we were walking across fields, got lost in the wrong field for a bit then carried on till we came to a footbridge over the M6. Very soon we were on the muddiest canal bank you can possibly imagine. Almost impossible to walk on in some parts but we did. We were greeted to the sight of a heron tackling an eel on the canal bank which held us up for a bit of a natural history display, then we carried on. Leaving the canal we headed towards the penultimate village before our destination: Kirkham.
In Kirkham we met at the pre arranged Pub with up to a hundred people there to walk with us for the last 5 miles to Preston New Road. Among them was Natalie Bennett, former Green Party Leader who had come to join us on the last leg. We set off and the drumming and chanting from our long line of fellow walkers. I just felt carried over those last few miles. The Core Group were subsumed within the mass of walkers as we headed by road to our destination. Then we arrived. As destinations go it was not in itself particularly inspiring. A Heras security fence with a row of dayglo guards behind it The chanting continued from us all on the opposite side of road "No Fracking in Yorkshire, No Fracking in Lancashire, No Fracking Anywhere". The 8 of us from the Core Group crossed the road with a banner standing in front of the fence for the photo opportunity. It was a lovely moment. To have actually made it the whole 120 miles and to be there with those who had shared the experience, the joy and the pain of walking all those miles.
We left the site and walked a short distance to a nearby Garden Centre that had allowed the local Anti Fracking Activists to use a huge polytunnel as their HQ. Lined up in a row at one end were 8 chairs with bowls of warm soapy water in front of them. we were handed red and white roses to hold to symbolise our 2 historic counties unity in the campaign against fracking. I addressed the crowd while standing in a bowl of water. I've got to say that is a first for me. The things I remember talking about was that the struggle we face against fracking being as much a global as well as a local issue. When I talked about the kindness shown to us on our journey I did start to feel a bit emotional as I it had really touched me but held it together as any repressed 52 year old Yorkshireman would. Then I reached into my rucksack and pulled out the Harrogate toffee tin filled with 'holy Yorkshire soil' from Kirby Misperton Protection Camp and we went outside and planted a Yorkshire Oak tree in Lancashire soil and symbolically mixed the soils of our 2 counties around it. Duncan from Blackpool Green Party said a few words and a poem. There were hand shakes and hugs and it was over. Simon Duffy from Huddersfield Green Party was on hand to take me and Louise home to Huddersfield and back to what passes for normal every day life for me. Some time to heal, sit on the sofa and watch crap telly. Heaven!
"So did you save the world from the Frackers then?" was one mildly sarcastic question I have been asked. No unfortunately we didn't that day. If anything it is the people who go to Preston New Road and Kirby Misperton nearly every day to protest who deserve the most credit and will hopefully save the UK from the Frackers I believe. The aim of the No Fracking Way walk was to show that Fracking is not simply a NIMBY issue but that an attack on the environment in one place was an attack on us all. A sort of NATO pact for the Environment. For those places to be in Lancashire and in Yorkshire with all the historical connotations of supposed rivalry gave it additional significance. Walking a 120 miles in 5 days on roads is hard but then we know that if it had been easy it wouldn't have been newsworthy or drawn as much attention and support from people across the North of England as it did. Division is everywhere in the UK. North and South, Lancashire and Yorkshire, Leavers and Remainers and so all actions which reach out and bring people together across divides are intrinsically a good thing to do. So as a proud Yorkshireman I'm also now the proud owner of a Frack Free Lancashire t-shirt. I hope to be wearing it at Preston New Road again very soon.
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