Hearing the result outside County Hall in Northallerton
Opponents of fracking vowed to continue their fight following the approval by North Yorkshire County Council of what could be the first fracked well in the UK for over five years.
At just before 7pm, the council’s planning committee voted by seven to four in favour of Third Energy’s application to frack its existing well at Kirby Misperton in Ryedale. The decision, after two long days of evidence and discussion, came despite more than 4,000 objections and a petition of more than 2,500 signatures.
Campaigners against the proposal, more than 70 of whom addressed the committee, promised the fight wasn’t over.
Friends of the Earth and the local group, Frack Free Ryedale, said they were considering a judicial review.
Sue Gough, from Little Barugh (above), launched a people’s declaration opposing fracking. She told the crowd that had waited all day for the result outside county hall at Northallerton:
“Today we resolve to continue to fight to remain free from fracking, to protect our communities, our beautiful countryside, our air and water, and to protect the future of the planet. We ask people across the country to join us by supporting this declaration.”
She said: “We are extremely disappointed that North Yorkshire County Council has not listened to the overwhelming wishes of the locally elected representatives of Ryedale and local people and has approved Third Energy’s application to frack in our county.
“This decision is not in our name. We know that Third Energy and their backers Barclays bank are the only ones that stand to benefit from these fracking plans. This application would put at risk Yorkshire’s beautiful landscape and the tourism industry that inspires millions of visitors each year and supports thousands of jobs.
“We have a positive democratic vision for Yorkshire and the UK with thriving rural economies, clean air and water, producing the green energy like solar power we need to protect our children’s future, and creating the thousands of green jobs along with it.
“We urge and will support the Government to develop a balanced long term energy policy that will achieve our globally agreed climate change targets.
Cllr John Blackie, a late substitute on the planning committee, (above) made the strongest criticism of the application during the meeting. He told councillors:
“I expected greater scrutiny and challenge from this planning authority. We have been too easily satisfied and we haven’t gone the extra mile to ensure that this stacks up. I don’t think it does.”
After the decision he told the crowd:
“I am very sorry that you are going home tonight disappointed”
He urged opponents of fracking to fight every future application with the same passion that they fought this one. “The next time around I will be there supporting you all the way.
Fellow councillor, Lyndsay Burr (above), who represents Kirby Misperton, said: “This is not the end. We will continue to fight. Ryedale wil not be known as the fracking capital of Yorkshire.”
Simon Bowens, the Yorkshire campaigner for Friends of the Earth (below), said county councillors had “turned their back on their local community” and “allowed this dirty dangerous industry to come into our beautiful place.”
But he added:
“That’s one well. One well is where it stops. We will struggle and we will fight to ensure that that is all.
“We will regather, we will bring ourselves together to make sure that we build the movement community by community, street by street, house by house to make sure that not just four thousand people, not just twenty thousand people but the whole of North Yorkshire is with us in our struggle to keep our beautiful county the way we like it – clean, healthy, economically vibrant with a great quality of life for the people who live there.
“Friends of the Earth will be with you every step of the way on that.”
Jake White, the legal officer for Friends of the Earth, said of a judicial review:
“It is always a possibility. There is work to do to go through the decision and talk to people who might be interested. There are routes that are worth looking into in the planning officer’s report.”
Ian Conlon, of Frack Free Ryedale (pictured), said:
“The council made mistakes. It is not over yet. We will fight on. We have an opinion from a barrister. We will be guided by our legal team over the next few weeks. There are a lot of things that we are concerned about the process.”
He added: “There are a lot of people talking about civil disobedience: that’s families and local residents. Families are determined to stop this.
“It has come down to fight or flight. People are already starting to leave Ryedale. People don’t want Ryedale to become a sacrifice zone.”
Cllr Paul Andrew, deputy mayor of Malton, said:
“We have lost the battle but we have not lost the war. It is time to get political. We have to be prepared to put ourselves up for election. If we won’t they will walk all over us.”
And a campaigner against Cuadrilla’s plans to frack in Lancashire, Gayzer Frackman, said:
“Do not believe that the decision has been made to frack. Yorkshire will stop fracking. We will united the roses. We will stop fracking.”
Live updates from the committee
Approval is one step, says industry
This report is part of DrillOrDrop’s Rig Watch project. Rig Watch receives funding from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. More details here
Categories: Opposition
DRILL OR DROP? 
The Gov has tried to appeal to the Corp so it can con them into non BREXIT and TTIP ok! The MASSES have been in the wings (they know this) so invest your money like fools because the two are easily parted. Insurance companies will be the big winners, and we all know who invests in them!!!
On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 11:12 PM, DRILL OR DROP? wrote:
> Ruth Hayhurst posted: ” Opponents of fracking vowed to continue their > fight following the approval by North Yorkshire County Council of what > could be the first fracked well in the UK for over five years. At just > before 7pm, the council’s planning committee voted by seven to f” >
Very brave and professional decision. Now it is up to the frackers to show the same courage and professionalism.
“Show the same professionalism”? Well based on the planning breaches we’ve seen from the industry so far I’ll not be holding my breath on that one.
Its sad that people have started to leave, dont leave, you have support from Yorkshire residents, campaigning groups and leaders to gith back. Dont give up! Too important. Need to prevent this, else will spread widely, destroying and messing with Mother Nature nationally.
Get a bib to wipe up that dribble
get a straw to suck up your own fracking fluids
If Sue Gough from Little Barugh is correct in saying that Barclays are backing Third Energy to frack Yorkshire then all true Yorkshire folk who currently have bank accounts, or any other dealings with Barclays, should move those accounts away from Barclays – and hit Barclays profits (and their shareholders).
The planning committee members who voted for fracking must be named and shamed and kicked out of office immediately as they clearly do not understand democracy.
It is time to get some government for the people and any politicians, national and local, who choose to ignore the will of the people should be out of office.
Let us see some real democracy in our Undemocratic version of democracy.
OK you vote in councillors and then when they act against the wishes of the majority of their constituents that’s undemocratic, maybe, maybe not. It’s exactly what happened in relation to the abolition of capital punishment, the majority of the population remained in favour of hanging long after abolition by MP’s in the Commons. Depending on your point of view, this was either undemocratic or the MP’s showing an enlightened attitude and independence and were leading rather than following public opinion. Because I’m see shale exploration as positive and beneficial I of course see their actions in the latter way. Politics is a difficult business I guess.
Mark. I disagree with your argument. Democracy is also governed by the laws of the land and its legislations which are created argued and agreed by democratic process of a democratically voted in MPs. Local councils also have the responsibilities to follow the rules of the laws its interpretation and guidance even when it appears to be unpopular to the mobs.
Sorry. Need to add that these laws is also to protect the rights of an individual or minority in the event where the mobs and their Self-Serving interests rules.
Why not try a public flogging Russell Morton. What an idiotic statement you make. Democracy was obvious. 7 for, 4 against.
Nothing democratic about your post, deal with it.
Hi Michael Dobbie, sorry you took exception to my comments but when you look at the numbers I don’t reckon my statement is quite so daft as you suggest.
More than 4,000 objections + a petition of more than 2,500 + 4 councillors = a lot of people against fracking at that one site. but only 7 councillors voted for fracking.
So, 7 overruling the wishes of 6,504 is not my idea of democracy.
99.2 against no democracy for them
Look at the devestating affect this has had on austrailia in Queensland. Despite the BG groups best efforts to cover up the immense social and environmental damge the LNG project has caused. Just even a fraction of the damage caused in Australia would be disastrous for the local economy, gas is at a record low price and there is more than enough supply. This is immense damage for only a very few to benefit from, whilst completely ignoring abundant renewables such as geo thermal which is difficult to profit from.
“Gas is at a record low price” , wow that’s terrible isn’t it. Fewer people in fuel poverty, lower CO2 emissions, less pollution, less deaths from winter cold… In other words, a complete disaster 😉 Tell you what we’ll do, instead of paying for gas to be frozen in all corners of the earth and then shipped to Europe and unfrozen, let’s produce a well-regulated shale industry in the UK and the rest of Europe if possible, leading eventually to lower or stable prices. The Cuadrilla site, I gather, stands less than a mile from a major national gas pipeline, if they can’t produce gas more cheaply than imports from Australian or Pennsylvania then we’re in a poor state. Uk gas supplies are part of a huge Europe wide market so we won’t see lower prices straight away but eventually they will move coser to US price levels, currently half those in Europe.
Mark you really are missing the problem here – Euro gas prices at around 30p a therm are already way too low for fracking with extraction costs of at least 48p a therm to be commercially viable without the taxpayer having to inject huge subsidies. That makes a bit of a nonsense of all the guff about fracking contributing to public services etc doesn’t it? Instead all of us “hard working families” will be enduring austerity and pumping money into the offshore tax havens used by the frackers’ backers. Sad really.
Michael Dobbie, Ryedale District Council who represent the people who will be affected, objected to this application! Statement from RDC: “In its consultation response, the District Council Planning Committee comprising Members of Ryedale District Council objected to the mineral planning application.
It should be noted that there were no Members of Ryedale District Council on the County Planning Committee.”
http://www.ryedale.gov.uk/pages/council-information/news/1867-planning-approval-north-yorkshire-county-council-mineral-planning-application-third-energy-uk-gas-kirby-misperton.html
Plus more than 4000 letters objecting compared to only 36 in support. So where is the democracy?!
Just a reference to a BBC story hidden away on their iWonder site. “Is your power supply about to run out?” takes the matter seriously. Not exactly the BBC’s headline story I know but maybe a start of a debate. Well done to them. Also the article is actually referenced so people can look up the data themselves if they wish.
We really do need a bridge fuel to partner up with renewables and gas is the most practical one. The late Professor David Mackay stated baldly in the last month of his life, “the idea that the UK can generate all it’s energy from renewables is a dangerous delusion”. He actually advocated a combination of nuclear and carbon capture as the way forward but it doesn’t look like that going to happen in the next decade or so.
Mark your comment is illogical. If there is no renewables-only future then gas cannot be a bridge to it. You are saying that gas is a bridge to nuclear. But then why not just go nuclear and not have the CO2 and fugitive methane emissions from gas?