Fracking protesters appeal against injunction

ENVIRONMENTAL AND human rights campaigners fighting an injunction granted to energy giant Ineos have taken the next step in their legal fight to have it overturned.

Last November a High Court judge in London continued a previously granted order prohibiting unlawful activities such as trespass or obstruction at the company’s shale gas sites.

But campaigners describe the injunction as both “unprecedented” and “draconian” – claiming it will seriously limit the right of people to protest peacefully against the activities of fracking companies and those linked to them.

Lawyers acting on their behalf said yesterday that they have lodged an appeal against the injunction.

Ineos Shale is involved in exploratory work such as geological surveys in the East Midlands, but not any hydraulic fracking.

Lawyers for the company have said the injunction was to “prohibit unlawful activities on private and public land”, and not to “injunct lawful activity”.

Environmental activist Joseph Boyd, represented by law firm Leigh Day, and fellow campaigner Joseph Corre, represented by Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, are now hoping to challenge the order at the Court of Appeal.

Their lawyers say the injunction, granted on an interim basis, “prevents individuals and campaign groups from being able to engage in certain forms of peaceful, and otherwise lawful, protest activity in relation to fracking, without the immediate threat of arrest and/or a fine”.

Mr Boyd said: “The High Court judgment has wide-ranging impacts on not only those involved in the campaign against climate change and fossil fuels, but also anyone who wishes to express opposition against any potentially controversial industry.

“I don’t think that people should be constrained to bannerwaving and petition-signing in order to protect the environment and the health of their families and future generations.

“I very much hope the Court of Appeal will agree to review the current injunction and properly uphold our right to peacefully protest, a core value in this country’s democratic history.”