Anti-fracking campaigners from North Yorkshire lose High Court challenge against fracking application
The High Court has ruled that fracking can go ahead in Yorkshire after environmental campaigners lost their legal challenge today.
North Yorkshire County Council granted a shale gas fracking permit to developer Third Energy in May this year, the first application to gain approval since a ban on fracking was lifted in 2012.
Third Energy started the application process in 2014.
Jackie Cray, David Davis and Friends of the Earth brought a judicial review challenging whether Yorkshire County Council properly took into account the full impact that fracking could have on climate change and had adequate financial protection for local residents against potential long-term environmental damage caused by fracking.
This morning the judge ruled that while the plaintiffs were correct that North Yorkshire County Council needed to consider climate impacts in their decision, the "substantive claim for judicial review is dismissed" as climate change had been considered.
Friends of the Earth campaigner Donna Hume claimed the issue had "barely been mentioned", and that the "councillors didn't have the information about the total carbon emissions produced from the fracking project".
Friends of the Earth were ordered to pay £10,000 costs, and the two local campaigners were ordered to pay £5,000. The local campaigers vowed to continue opposing fracking in Yorkshire.