Ryedale anti-fracking petition debated by councillors

Third Energy has applied to fracture underground rocks at a site near the village of Kirby Misperton

A 1,000-signature petition calling on North Yorkshire County Council to oppose fracking in Ryedale has been handed to councillors.

Third Energy has applied to fracture underground rocks at a site near the village of Kirby Misperton and then pump gas from them.

Campaigners want the council to oppose fracking in North Yorkshire.

But councillors voted to commission further investigation into the petition rather than support or oppose it.

Fracking is a technique for extracting gas or oil trapped between layers of rock by forcing the layers open using water, sand and chemicals under high pressure.

'Perfectly safe'

Dr Tim Thornton, a local GP who supports the petition, said: "We should just pause and wait and check the signs.

"I don't see that we should use Ryedale as a giant experiment to see if you can frack cleanly."

But John Dewar, operations director at Third Energy, said: "The government and many scientific bodies conducted very detailed studies looking at health, looking at seismology, looking at water contamination and as a result of all those studies they concluded that it's perfectly safe."

An Environment Agency consultation on the plans is running between 10 June and 10 July.