Protesters in new meeting

Vivienne Westwood in an earlier fracking protest in London

Lytham engineer Mike Hill has urged all the various groups to co-ordinate their actions and is staging a forum tonight in Squires Gate, Blackpool.

It will feature a speaker from a campaign in Sussex which successfully fought off a similar appeal.

Dr Jill Sutcliffe, who has a PhD in Environmental Science, will be there to offer her experience of planning appeals as Cuadrilla prepares to fight the rejection of its bids to frack at two Fylde locations by Lancashire County Council.

The meeting, from 4pm at Aviation House, 2 Skyways Business Campus, Amy Johnson Way, comes as another group, the Nanas of Lancashire, are joining fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and a pink tank to protest at Prime Minister David Cameron’s Witney constituency home about fracking.

Mr Hill said: “The idea of the forum is that it shares ideas, avoids any duplication of effort and maximises the use of the resources, both people and money.

“We have to give the Fylde the best possible chance of success. As I have been working with groups in the south for about three years now I thought it a good idea that we learn a bit from them.

“We have to successfully defend all the appeals – lose one and we lose them all.”

Tina Rothery, from Nanas of Lancashire, said the tank was part of an ‘attack on chemicals’ protest. She said: “Where is the democracy? In a true democracy we would have been heard the first time and not been dragged into legal wrangles that we cannot afford to win, with opponents so powerful they dwarf us and silence our voices.”