THE row over fracking plans in Ryedale has taken a new twist with concerns raised by council chiefs about the validity of some of the thousands of objections.

An application by Third Energy UK Gas Ltd for shale gas extraction near Kirby Misperton, south of Pickering, is set to be discussed next month by North Yorkshire County Council’s planning and regulatory functions committee.

The council says it is currently in the process of verifying the identification of people and organisations that have made representations.

And it says it has raised concerns with committee members that some ‘en masse’ representations from objectors have included emails and letters 'unbeknown to the owner of the email address or the named person on the letter, and that personal data may have been used without consent.'

It added in a statement to The Press: "The scale of the concern is unknown at this point. If any of the council’s inquiries raise matters that require police attention, those matters will be referred to the police."

A spokesperson from the group opposing the plans, Frack Free Ryedale, said the council had received nearly 2,500 objections and only 12 letters of support to date, which was 'very encouraging and clearly shows the depth of opposition to fracking in Ryedale.'

But it went on to say: "However, we share the council's concern if there have been any problems with the consultation process and how objections have been received.

"We understand that some people have objected using online letter templates organised by national campaign groups, and may not have realised these were going direct to the NYCC, rather than back to the campaign groups themselves.

"This may be the reason for why the council has suggested that a small number people have accidentally objected twice, or were not aware that they had objected to the council.

"Also, of course many people, particularly older couples, share email addresses and both people may have submitted their own personal objection via the same email address.

"We are surprised that the interim report does not include more detail and would welcome further clarification from the NYCC on what has occurred and the number of responses involved."