I HAVE no problem with anti-fracking protesters making their voices heard legally, but those that think they have the right to win by any means necessary need to be dealt with much more firmly.

A handful of idealists chain themselves up and so 50 officers are deployed, with two cutting the protesters free and 48 standing by watching like it was a police picket line.

So why do we find ourselves having to commit such a large amount of public resources to this operation?

It’s because the state’s response to activists deliberately and ostentatiously violating the law has been as tough as Amir Khan’s chin.

Oh sure, they arrest a few but they’re never seriously prosecuted and are released to go straight back and do it all over again.

I don’t recall police ever holding public meetings to plead with locals about speeding, declaring they will make every effort to be tolerant and sympathetic of people’s differing opinions.

Let’s cut the cost of this operation and instead send a camera van up to Kirby Misperton and have each illegal demonstrator fined £100 for every ten minutes they block the site access.

It’s costing us as taxpayers and real crime victims when our 101 phone calls go unanswered.

Until it’s made clear that it will not be tolerated, this absurd situation will continue.

Dr Scott Marmion, Woodthorpe, York