A judge has ordered protestors to remove a wooden tower currently blocking the entrance to a prospective fracking site.
The BBC reports that the structure was built by anti-fracking campaigners at Rathlin Energy’s site at Walkington, East Yorkshire, in June.
A judge at London’s High Court has upheld applications by Rathlin Energy and landowners for possession orders on all but one area of contested land, which will be the subject of a further hearing.
Rathlin has maintained that it does not plan on fracking in the area which is the subject of protests, issuing the following statement: “We acknowledge the decision of the High Court. Our actions in court had nothing to do with the rights of legal, peaceful protest - we were acting to recover possession of land, which we are legally entitled to, from people who have entered onto it with no legal right.
“Our actions are solely to allow us to recover our land and to continue with our lawful business. Once again, for the avoidance of any doubt, our work is targeted exclusively at the exploration and potential development of conventional oil and gas resources. Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited has not sought, and has no intention of seeking, any of the permissions required for developing shale or for the fracking of shale. There is nothing to prevent protesters from protesting peacefully if they can find somewhere from where they can do it legally, but not on our land.”
According to ITV news, the judge ruled that Rathlin Energy had exclusive government licences and planning permission to explore the two sites for shale gas, which, its says, would be extracted using conventional methods.
Edited from various sources by Katie Woodward