Yorkshire police chief concerned about the return of fracking protests

The Government halted shale gas extraction in England in 2019, due to fears about earthquakes, but Ministers are being urged to rethink the ban as they attempt to limit soaring energy prices and phase out Russian imports.

Dr Billings said fracking is extremely divisive and “never good news for policing” as they “attract environmental protesters from far and near”.

“We saw this happen at Kirby Misperton in North Yorkshire and over the hills in Lancashire,” he said.

“These protests are not easy to police. Sites are often in open countryside giving many points of access.

“It is difficult to remove determined protesters from trees or underneath vehicles. The police face the usual dilemma: they must enable peaceful protest but also make it possible for people to go about their lawful business.

“This is potentially a huge demand on officer numbers and quickly runs up big bills in overtime, as the Lancashire constabulary found.”

Earlier this week, Business Minister Greg Hands said the Government needs to “keep all of our energy options open” following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and fracking “could be part of our future energy mix” but it needs the support of local communities.

It came after Conservative MP Lee Anderson asked the Government whether energy firm Cuadrilla should press ahead with plans to abandon wells in Lancashire and fill them with concrete.

He was told the company needs to apply for an extension from the Oil and Gas Authority if it wants to keep the wells open.

However, the Independent Climate Change Committee has warned that high oil and gas prices are driven by global markets and increasing UK fossil fuel extraction would have virtually no impact on bills.

The best approach to reducing consumers’ exposure to volatile prices is to cut demand for fossil fuels through home insulation, heat pumps, electric vehicles and more wind and solar power, the advisory committee claimed.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “We want to keep all options available to us, given these unique circumstances we find with the war in Ukraine, to help us move away from Russian gas.

“Beyond that we haven’t provided any further updates but we will do so if that changes. While we are developing our plans, which we are going to set out this month, the moratorium on shale gas does remain in place.”