Road closed as protester scales wagon
PROTESTS BY anti-fracking campaigners continued to cause disruption at a site in North Yorkshire yesterday.
Police were forced to close the road leading to Third Energy’s site near Malton when one campaigner scaled a wagon.
The protest was the latest in a string of demonstrations to have taken place in recent weeks, ahead of planned fracking at the site off Habton Road in Kirby Misperton later this year.
Announcing the road closure, a North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “This irresponsible action is extremely dangerous. This will cause significant disruption to the local community.”
Diversions were put in place as the stand-off continued.
Meanwhile, four people have been charged after taking part in protests on Wednesday.
The campaigners had been lying in the road with their arms locked into metal tubing.
Four women – aged 39, 40, 54 and 66 – were charged with wilfully obstructing the highway.
They will appear at York Magistrates’ Court in November.
Police said yesterday that a total of 24 people had been arrested at the site so far this month.
Two were released with no further action, two accepted cautions, and the remaining 20 have been charged with offences.