An angry crowd of anti-fracking protestors from around Britain vowed to fight on today, Monday, as Tory-controlled North Yorkshire County Council accepted Barclays-backed Third Energy’s application to frack at Kirby Misperton in Ryedale.
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“We’re not saying there could never be fracking, we’re saying there are such serious questions about health, the economy and the climate that until they have better answers we use a good British precautionary principle – we don’t do it till we know what it really does”.
Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at rock to release the gas inside.
Local residents also raised fears that fracking would cause noise pollution, lead to risky levels of traffic and deter tourists.
It was told by council planning officer Vicky Perkin that of 4,420 individual representations, only 36 were in support of the application.
The meeting is expected to last two days as so many people want to speak against the plan.
Ian Conlan, of Frack Free Ryedale, described the decision as “appalling”, particularly considering the “strength of public opposition”. “It’s a war on our human rights to clean air and water so we’ve got to take it like that and keep pushing and pushing and pushing”.
“But the battle is very far from over”, Bowens said.
Barbara Richardson from Roseacre Awareness group said: “We are joining our friends in Yorkshire to try and prevent fracking from taking place in our lovely countryside”.
The application had sparked protests across the region. The authorities must listen to the will of the people: 99 percent opposed the plans – that says it all.
“It’s just one well, one existing well that’s going to be fracked”. Proponents of the practice say it is safe and will boost the economy, while opponents have cited environmental and health concerns from Australia and the U.S., as well as the need to burn less fossil fuels to prevent the destruction of the earth from climate change. “But that’s par for the course, I suppose”.
Third Energy’s gas application, filed in June 2015, requested permission to fracture an extension of a well drilled in 2013 in the Northern English countryside and carry out associated clean-up and monitoring activities.
Mr Dewar said the company had been mining gas through conventional methods in the area for 20 years without any damage to the area and claimed most of the objections came from “misunderstandings”. “The fears will diminish once we execute it safely”.
But local councils are required to work within the national policy framework that indigenous oil and gas remain key to energy security while facilitating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
“Lastly, there’s the fact that the United Kingdom won’t own the gas – it’ll belong to the company extracting it, who will presumably sell it into the European market, at market rates”.
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“And that’s partly down to the North Sea, partly down to on-shore and also partly down to renewables”.
