East Riding of Yorkshire Council have moved in to take direct action to remove the structures that are at the Crawberry Hill anti fracking camp in Walkington.
The council have brought in an external bailiff company to handle the work to dismantle the structures and other items that make up the camp in accordance to a notice that was issued in December.
To help ensure things passed off safely the Road was closed with all motorists and pedestrians being kept away by police. However despite the action being taken by the council they say people will still be allowed to protest at the site in new specially designated area, without any structures.
Alan Menzies, East Riding Council’s director of planning and economic regeneration said that the council or Rathlin Energy have any problem nor do they wish to stop people protesting. He also stressed that the reason the council are doing this was purely on the grounds of safety.
Since its arrival in May 2014 the Crawberry Hill Protection Camp has become focal point for those who are against oil and gas exploration in the area. Over the months it has grown in size as more structures, tents and caravans appear.
It is these that the council say have triggered a number of complaints from the parish councils, residents and local police who feel that the camp in now posing a real risk to motorists and other users of the road.
Unlike previous key points since May, today proceedings were far more controlled. Even the media were excluded from going any near where work was being carried out. A request to the council for permission to get closer to access to photograph the activities site was denied, on grounds of safety.
As protesters started to leave the camp, escorted by the police, only then did what was happening inside the camp start to become clear. It seems the protesters were caught off guard. Around the area the roads were sealed off and the bailiffs moved.
Crawberry Hill Protection Camp is now behind a fence and as it deemed as a building site, as such people are being kept away from it on the grounds of Health & Safety. One protester and a some local residents however took a risk and used private land to get to camp, only to be greeted by bailiffs and police.
For now anyone wanting to protest will have to do so without tents or other shelters, something people who have been occupying the camp for the past few months say is unmanageable.
