Anti-fracking campaigners have been given an 11th hour reprieve in their battle against eviction from Barton Moss.

Occupants of the protest camp were yesterday ordered by a judge to leave by midday today.

However just minutes before the deadline, they were granted leave to challenge the eviction by the Court of Appeal, in London.

It means they can remain on the site on Barton Moss Road, in Eccles pending the hearing to decide if they have grounds for appeal, which is expected to take place later this week.

There were huge cheers after the lawyer representing the group at court rang with the news.

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One of the two defendants in the case, Green Party activist Martin Burke told the assembled crowd: “This is great news. We will be here tomorrow morning. The point of this is to highlight just how dangerous fracking is.

“We are disputing the boundary as well as our rights under Article 8 (of the Human Rights Act).

“I’d like to pay tribute to the courage of everyone who has been staying here."

There was a large police presence at the site ahead of the midday deadline.

Two protesters were cut free after a ‘lock-on’ in which they attach themselves to a device made up of metal pipes and cement.

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Protesters were elated to be granted the reprieve.

Cheers rang out across the camp as the news was announced on a megaphone.

Diane Steels, 53, from Lancashire, who has been at the camp since November, said: “I’m absolutely delighted.

“I just hope that they see sense. We need to put a stop to this altogether but at least we’ve got some hope now and we’re not having to move tonight.

“We haven’t got a great deal of faith at the moment but this has given us a shred that they’re actually listening to us.”

Earlier Diane, who describes herself as the ‘camp grandma’, said there would be ‘no surrender’ if an eviction notice was served.

But she said protesters would not ‘stoop’ to violence.

“I came here as a grandma concerned for my granddaughters’s future and I’ve been bullied, I’ve been pushed, I’ve been shoved,” she said.

“We’re a peaceful camp and I don’t think we have anything to lose but we won’t stoop to their level.

“Whether the camp’s here or not we’ll still be here every day.

“I’m still here and I’ll still stay here. I’ll walk in front of those trucks every day whether the camp is here or not.

“We need no fracking here and we need no fracking worldwide. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

“There will be no surrender, not from me.”

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Edwina Hodkinson, who runs a herbal clinic at the camp, said she was also delighted their right to an appeal had been granted.

The 50-year-old, from Bury, said: “These people are protecting our communities and our health and it is really fundamental what they do.

“I’m hoping the camp is going to stay open. The stakes are very high for the anti-fracking movement and the issue of fracking so we have got to support them.

“I’m worried for my home, my kids, their health and their future and that’s why I got involved.

“We’ll be here right to the end.”

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