Bogus emails objecting to a controversial fracking application were sent out by five parish councils after their account was hacked, it has been alleged.
North Yorkshire county council has complained to the police after receiving several suspicious representations against fracking proposals for a site at Kirby Misperton in the Ryedale district.
Objections in the names of five parish councils have been removed from the county council’s website after the parish clerks said that a joint email account had been subject to “hacking” and they had not sent them, according to an official report.
The county council also received letters and emails about the application in the names of people who were not aware they had been sent.
Anti-fracking campaigners from around the country are holding a rally tomorrow outside the county hall in Northallerton, where the council’s planning committee will consider an application by Third Energy to hydraulically fracture a well at an existing site for conventional gas extraction. So many people have registered to speak that the hearing is likely to continue on Monday, with a vote expected that day.