Protests as fracking plans move a step closer

CAMPAIGNERS WERE moved from the proposed fracking site in North Yorkshire yesterday after the county council revealed that all the planning conditions for the controversial proposals had been met.

Fifteen months after the council granted permission for Third Energy to frack at a site near Kirby Misperton, it announced that conditions including traffic management had been agreed.

But the actual extraction of gas through hydraulic fracturing, which is strongly opposed by local campaigners and environmental groups, will not go ahead until consent is granted by Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

North Yorkshire Police said its officers attended the fracking site yesterday afternoon “after a group of protesters caused an obstruction at the hydraulic fracturing site”.

The force said in a statement: “Several protesters were moved away from the front of the site. There were no arrests.”

The pre-planning conditions agreed by North Yorkshire County Council relate to traffic management, to the prevention of mud on roads and to commitment to restore the site after work is complete.

Third Energy has given the county council a seven-day notification, meaning materials and equipment will be moved to the site in a week.

Richard Flinton, North Yorkshire’s chief executive, said: “We gave planning consent on a single site which already had drilling for gas on it and this was subject to rigorous planning conditions which we have now agreed. Our role now is to ensure that the planning conditions are fully discharged and monitored.”