It has been fascinating to see the fracking situation at Balcombe village develop over the past couple of weeks.

While the story gathers momentum, I feel it’s important we retain an unbiased view of the situation, but there does appear to be a suggestion that the police on site were beginning to get a little heavy-handed with the protesters.

The other night while watching a TV report, a woman proclaimed “the meditation tent had been trashed by the police”, followed closely by a person stating his ear had been pinched, also by the police. Not for a minute am I suggesting it is acceptable to trash meditation areas, or even pinch people’s ears, but to keep things in perspective, a lot worse could happen.

Imagine if the Balcombe situation was occurring in France; I think perhaps the police would go a little further than tweaking people’s ears. While we all know our police do not always get things right, they are all we have as a bulwark against the dark behaviour that would soon become apparent should there ever be a serious breakdown in law and order.

What about a word of praise, where I believe the police have demonstrated a calm, measured and appropriate response in a difficult situation, with a great deal of provocation.

Trevor Alford, Former Conservative councillor