Anti-fracking protesters target sites around the UK

Babs Murphy, chief executive of the North & Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said that one of her employees was injured when the activists entered the office on Monday and condemned the protesters.

"I don’t believe any law-abiding citizen would condone that form of action. We fully support the right to a peaceful protest. Today was not a peaceful protest; they gained forced entry into the Chamber of Commerce," she said.

A spokesman for Reclaim the Power denied causing any injury and said it had been an "entirely peaceful protest". She did not deny targeting the chamber of commerce deliberately, saying "we were targeting Cuadrilla and their associates".

In a statement issued by the group, Tina Rothery, a local anti-fracking activist, said: “The North and West Chamber Of Commerce carries a great deal of weight and influence and should be more responsible in their actions which are currently misleading local businesses. They are not being made aware of the damage the shale gas industry will do to local tourism, agriculture and all the other businesses that depend on them.”

The Chamber of Commerce is a leading voice in the North West Energy Task Force, a pro-fracking umbrella group of local businesses that receives an undisclosed amount of financial support from Cuadrilla and partners Centrica.

^{Police officers stand guard outside the Blackpool office building after anti-fracking activists left (pic: PA)}

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: "This is being treated as an offence of aggravated trespass and efforts are being made to identify those people who illegally entered the building, although no arrests have been made at this stage.

"Lancashire Constabulary will always endeavour to facilitate lawful and peaceful protest but where the law is broken we will take appropriate action."

Reclaim the Power is currently staging a protest camp in a field neighbouring one of Cuadrilla's proposed fracking sites.

A spokesman for Cuadrilla said: "They have not entered our office or inconvenienced Cuadrilla in any way.

"What they have done is target a local farmer by illegally occupying the ‘wrong’ field and now clearly, and deliberately, occupied a completely separate office of the local Chamber of Commerce disrupting their work for no reason other than they don’t agree about the potential benefits of shale.

"They are seeking to threaten and curtail the free speech of the Chamber of Commerce in a totally unacceptable way."

more