HUNDREDS of activists were today arriving in North Yorkshire for the start of a massive environmental protest - still planning to shut down a massive power station next week.

The Camp For Climate Action is holding a ten-day protest in "Megawatt Valley", south of Selby, to highlight concerns about climate change.

The venue for the camp had previously been kept a closely-guarded secret, but organisers yesterday began constructing the site on farmland next to Barlow Common nature reserve, about three miles south east of Selby and two miles north west of Drax Power Station.

The station recently obtained an injunction to stop a proposed day of action on Thursday, banning protestors from its premises and restricting the use of an adjacent footpath.

Nearby Eggborough Power Station has already deployed security staff to prevent anyone trespassing there.

Camp spokeswoman Anna Harrison warned today that some protesters were prepared to break the injunction in their efforts to close Drax station down.

"They feel that this is a matter of such importance that they are prepared to break the law," she said.

But asked precisely what actions they intended taking, she said this would be discussed during the camp.

The power station has been selected as the focus of the protest, because protestors claim it is the UK's largest emitter of carbon dioxide.

Anna said it was impossible to say how many would join the camp, although she was hoping for thousands and was confident that many hundreds would turn up from across Britain and also abroad. As well as the day of action, the camp promises "education about climate change, sustainable living, with a mix of workshops and meetings.

Anna said the preparatory work included the erection of marquees and provision of compost toilets.

She claimed the farmland was currently unused and, while it had initially been squatted, there had since been "friendly" negotiations with the farmer who owned it and she believed there had been an offer of compensation. The site would be cleared up afterwards, she added.

A Drax Power Station spokeswoman said it had been liaising with the authorities and security staff were deployed around the site.

She said the injunction had been taken out for two main reasons: the safety of staff and protesters, and the security of electricity supplies.

She said there were hazards and dangers on such a site, and there could be a fatality if people entered it.

At the same time, if protesters succeeded in shutting the station down, the National Grid could be destabilised because Drax supplied seven per cent of the country's electricity needs. If this were to happen, it could result in power cuts in certain areas. She said Drax had offered to meet the protesters to discuss their concerns, and this offer, not so far taken up, remained open.

The amount of damaging carbon dioxide spewed out by Yorkshire's coal-burning power stations could be cut by half over the next 15 years, a new study has claimed.

By stopping the harmful gas before it enters the atmosphere, coal-fired power stations can be made more environmentally friendly, the report said. The plans would involve storing the gas safely underground or under the sea.

The Yorkshire And Humber Assembly's Vision For Coal report, written by a panel of energy experts, concludes that coal could eventually become a carbon-neutral fuel.