This morning, a group of us took to the streets of Manchester to send Barclays Bank a message that it’s not acceptable for them to be financing fracking in North Yorkshire.
Barclays Bank owns 97% of a company called Third Energy, who have applied to frack for shale gas across Ryedale in North Yorkshire.
Local residents are up in arms, not just because of the impact on people living near the proposed site and on the local environment, but also because of the impact of extracting yet more fossil fuels on the fight to keep the climate safe.
Today, we visited the three Barclays branches in Manchester city centre and handed letters to the branch managers calling on Barclays to stop funding fracking in Ryedale.
It was especially interesting to hear from the manager of the St Ann’s Square branch that quite a few people had already raised this issue with him – it definitely sounds like the message is getting through!
If you’d like to join in the fun, here are links to some useful resources:
- Letter to your local Barclays bank manager, if you are a customer
- Letter to your local Barclays bank manager, if you’re not currently a customer
- Tips on how to speak to Barclays staff/manager
- A print-at-home poster in case you want to take a #StopBarclaysFracking selfie outside your branch!
And if you’re not able to get down to your local branch, here’s a link to an online petition to Barclays’ CEO that you can sign and share with your friends, family and colleagues:
https://www.foe.co.uk/go/Barclays