ANTI-FRACKING campaigners have welcomed calls to suspend a controversial drilling technique in North Yorkshire.

Ministers in the Environmental Audit Committee want fracking - the process of hydraulically fracturing rock to extract shale gas - to be stopped on the grounds it could harm efforts to tackle climate change.

In November last year, THIRD energy UK Gas Limited (Third Energy) announced its intentions to apply for planning permission to explore the KM8 well at Kirby Misperton near Pickering and assess the potential for extracting shale gas.

However, the process of fracking could be placed in doubt if the suspension, or moratorium, is given Government backing.

John Cossham, chairman of Frack Free York, said the Government should listen to the committee, and remove it from the controversial Infrastructure Bill, which would strip landowners of the power to block fracking beneath their homes if it was successful.

Mr Cossham said : "This is common sense.

"There's no way we can move towards a totally renewable power supply and reduce our Carbon Dioxide emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 if we open up on gas and build power stations.

"The dash for gas doesn't fit in with the Climate Change Act.

"I hope the Government listens to the Environmental Audit Committee and does what they are telling them to do and take fracking out of the Infrastructure Bill and place a moratorium on it."

Richard Lane, from York and Ryedale Friends of the Earth group, said: "It's a vindication for what we have been saying for a while and great to see.

"The thing that's really changed now is they are starting to realise there's not enough money for it and the more cautious voices can now be heard.

"The incredible record of damage and pollution is being recognised.

"This was never going to be as cash friendly as it was in America and it's a terrible idea from an environmental point of view."