A SECOND fracking meeting will take place in Ryedale on Monday.

Frack Free Ryedale (FFR) have arranged an event at Kirby Misperton, which will be held at the same time as one chaired by local MP Kevin Hollinrake at Malton School.

The Kirby Misperton meeting will see Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith, a former member of a United Nations expert panel on chemicals, talk about the impacts of fracking in her home country of Australia.

Running from 8pm to 9.30pm, the event will also be addressed by Ryedale resident Rt Rev Graham Cray.

He has just returned from a lecture tour in Pennsylvania where he met representatives of communities living with fracking.

Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith said: “Communities in Australia have felt the huge impacts of unconventional gas extraction.

"They have seen their water polluted and their friends and neighbours suffering serious health problems.

"What has happened in Australia must not happen in Ryedale, or anywhere else.

"Unconventional gas is an inherently risky business so, as we have learned in Australia, regulation can make it safer, but not safe."

Rev Cray said: “I have learned from meeting people in Pennsylvania that fracking changes rural communities.

"This is because of the sheer scale of operations – the huge number of wells, storage facilities, pipelines and lorry movements. Fracking in Ryedale risks industrialisation of our beautiful area."