800 years of the Charter of the Forest: Why Fracking Matters

To mark the 800th Anniversary of the Charter and to consider its contemporary relevance performance activities in Sherwood Forest Country Park will be followed at the South Forest Centre Robin Hood Crossroads, Clipstone Rd, Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire at 2.00-5.00pm, on Sunday 5th November

The 1217 Charter of the Forest re-established the rights of ordinary people to use the land for their own purposes instead of the king imposing his use for hunting that excluded local people from gathering firewood, building materials, grazing their animals and the like. For centuries local people with knowledge of the areas in which they lived fought for, and retained, rights to use and protect common lands.

Nowadays politics is moving the other way. The government is making it difficult to oppose companies establishing fracking gas fields across much of the country. This would have far reaching negative impacts on local landscapes and land uses like farming and tourism, on local water acquifers, on local air quality and on public health. They claim that this form of local “economic development” is a solution to local poverty while punishingausterity policies make living conditions precarious, pushing communities towards accepting what is otherwise deeply unpopular.

Speakers at the indoor event will include Prof Peter Linebaugh, historian; Professor Guy Standing (expert on the commons today). This is not a party political event aligned with any individual political party. It is linked to a number of other activities through England celebrating the 800thanniversary of the charter. The final details will be sent out by email nearer the date.

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