Testing by Third Energy expected to get go-ahead soon at Kirby Misperton, the first in UK since 2011

For the past year, Leigh Coghill has devoted her life to one thing – trying to stop the gas exploration company Third Energy from fracking on the outskirts of a tiny village in North Yorkshire. The 26-year-old from Wolverhampton, who “married into Yorkshire”, quit her job working for York council in November last year, deciding to devote herself to the cause.

Since September, when Third Energy started preparing the site at Kirby Misperton for fracking, she has been one of a group of around forty Ryedale locals to have spent almost every day protesting next to the gates to the well, holding banners and placards, and watching in dismay as lorries trundle in.

Coghill says that apart from environmental concerns, her opposition to fracking comes from a desire to protect her home. “Yorkshire is stunning,” she says. “It’s so gorgeous and I don’t think people realise that’s not a given. People don’t seem to realise that it can be taken away.”

The business secretary, Greg Clark, is expected to give Third Energy its final permission to begin test fracking any day now, with the company saying the site is nearly ready for the process to begin. The fracking would be the first to take place in the UK since 2011, when two tremors of magnitude 1.5 and 2.3 woke people from their sleep after tests near Blackpool. If the trial run is a success, it will pave the way for the site to operate permanently.

In a bid to stop the fracking, some campaigners have deployed non-violent direct action tactics including lying on the road to prevent vehicles from entering the site, climbing on lorries and, on one occasion recently, scaling an 18-metre (60ft) rig and waving flares. North Yorkshire police have had a permanent presence at the protest since it was scaled up in September, and accusations of disproportionate and aggressive policing are rife among campaigners.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police line the road to the Third Energy Fracking Site. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

Officers regularly outnumber protesters by more than two to one, and the force revealed last month that the additional cost of policing the protests had been £80,238 up to 31 August and £101,476 in September alone. There have been 68 arrests and 62 charges to date.

The Guardian photographer Gary Calton wrote to the region’s police and crime commissioner last week after he was restrained by police officers twice in one day in a bid to stop him from taking pictures. “I’ve been a photographer for 27 years, photographing around the world in contentious situations, I’ve never had a police man hold my arms and stop me from working,” he said.



Carol Towner, 53, from the nearby town of Pickering, says she was charged with assaulting a police officer following a claim she had spilt hot coffee on the officer’s leg during a tussle at the gates to the well site. She denies the charge. A former Tory voter, she says she always taught her children to respect authority and the police, but has had her world view turned on its head after joining the campaign.

“Having seen the way the police have been dishing out their aggression, the way I’ve been manhandled, the way my children have been kettled … I can’t stand in my former Tory blue shoes and say that I believe in what they’re doing.”

Amanda Oliver, assistant chief constable of North Yorkshire, said the force’s duty was first and foremost to ensure the safety of everyone involved in the protest at Kirby Misperton. “This is a particularly challenging task for our officers, especially when there are large groups of people which include a mixture of peaceful protesters – the majority – along with a minority who are intent on taking unlawful action to disrupt the movement of large vehicles to and from the well site,” she said.



“This unlawful action has already caused a great deal of disruption within the local community, which is unacceptable. As well as facilitating people’s right to assemble and protest peacefully, part of our role is to keep disruption to local residents and businesses to a minimum.” She added that “the valuable role [the media plays] in covering this important issue” has been stressed to officers on the ground.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Marchers on the way to Third Energy’s site, where daily protests have been taking place. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

A spokesperson for Third Energy said the company respected the right to lawful and peaceful protest, but that “the residents of Ryedale and Third Energy have the same expectation that we and they should be able to go about our lawful business”.

While proponents say fracking could meet the country’s energy needs for generations and reduce its reliance on imported gas post-Brexit, campaigners argue that it is dangerous industry – citing concerns over water contamination, earth quakes and the destruction of the landscape.

Government figures out on Thursday showed public opposition to fracking was at an all-time high, with 36% opposing it, 13% supporting it, and 48% neither supporting nor opposing it. While two-thirds of England’s land is available for fracking licenses, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, France and Germany have all blocked the practice because of safety concerns.



Coghill acknowledges that she is unlikely to stop test fracking from taking place, but insists she will keep fighting the fracking industry at every corner. Kirby Misperton is the tip of the iceberg, she says. “The people who are holding out hope that this is all going to go away when the test frack is complete don’t understand what it really means for the area, and for the country.”