Power station secures injunction against ‘threat of environmental protest’

A power station has secured a High Court injunction against would-be environmental activists on and around its site after a police tip-off about a planned protest camp.

Drax Power Limited asked for the court’s protection at a hearing on Thursday following an “escalation in the level of threat” to its power station in Selby, North Yorkshire.

Lawyers for the company said that North Yorkshire Police had advised it to seek an injunction following a “specific threat of imminent environmental protest” by the campaign group Reclaim the Power, which was “supported, or at least endorsed” by fellow campaign group Axe Drax.

In written submissions, Timothy Morshead KC, representing Drax Power, said a “protest camp” had been advertised as taking place between August 8 and 13 at an undisclosed location at the site, adding that “there is a real risk that this could take place prior to the advertised dates”.

He said: “In the result, and as advised by the police, the claimant needs to ask for the protection of the court by way of an injunction, to restrain the apprehended trespass and other unlawful acts on or directly affecting the power station, and its associated infrastructure, in order to avoid the risks to safety of persons and property and disruption of its operations at the power station.”

No protesters attended the hearing in London and they were not represented.

The court was told that the power station was part of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure and created 4% of the UK’s electricity, and 8% of the country’s renewable energy, enough to power the equivalent of eight million homes each year.

The site has been the subject of protests in the past, with Mr Morshead claiming “there have also been a number of unauthorised drones flying over the power station recently”.

He added that there was a “real and credible risk” that protesters could affect the power station, including by trespassing on the site, cutting or “locking on” to its fencing, or obstructing trains which bring biomass materials to it.

Speaking in court, the barrister said there was a “compelling need” for an injunction against “what seems to be a co-ordinated threat”, which he claimed campaigners had described as a “mass-action camp targeting Drax”.

He said: “My clients feel they are left with no option but to seek the court’s protection.”

He continued: “This is not a promise of a peaceful camp. There is a lot buried in the word ‘action’, that we don’t know about, but we can guess.”

The injunction does not cover what Mr Morshead described as a “strip of land” which is marked out for “peaceful protest”, situated “as close as has been judged to be operationally safe”.

Mr Justice Ritchie granted the order covering the power station and a “buffer zone” around it, stating that there was a “compelling justification” for it due to a “real, imminent threat of direct action”.

The injunction will be reviewed in 12 months.