Legion Troll
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Councillors in North Yorkshire have given the green light to the first fracking operation in the UK for five years.
The county council planning committee approved the application by UK firm Third Energy to frack for shale gas at an existing drilling site near the village of Kirby Misperton, between Malton and Pickering.
Seven of the 11 North Yorkshire County Councillors on the committee voted in favour of the application.
The result was met with boos and jeers from protesters who had gathered on the lawn outside County Hall, in Northallerton, during the two-day meeting.
Demonstrators shouted "shame on you" and "you will be held accountable".
The fracking application is the first to be approved in the UK since 2011, when tests on the Fylde coast, in Lancashire, were found to have been the cause of earthquakes in the area.
Since then, two high-profile applications to frack in Lancashire have been rejected by councillors
Planners had recommended the plan was approved, despite acknowledging that the majority of representations received in consultation were objections.
Vicky Perkin, a council planning officer, told the committee that, of 4,420 individual representations, 4,375 were objections and just 36 were in support of the application.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-3605378/Councillors-North-Yorkshire-approve-UK-fracking-scheme-five-years.html