Preston New Road closed both ways due to anti-fracking protests

Officers used the Fylde Police Facebook page to blame the closure – between Fox Lane Ends and Whitehill Road – on ‘campaigners at the fracking site locking on in both carriageways’.

“Delays and disruption are expected throughout the day,” they added.

Anti-frackers have stepped up their protests this month.

Some have been locked in the boots of cars parked close to Cuadrilla’s site entrance, while others have climbed on lorries and trucks in a bid to disrupt deliveries to the site.

‘Locking on’ involves protestors covering their arms in metal tubing and sometimes chaining themselves to fencing.

A ‘rolling roadside protest’ is also planned for 9.30am until 11am tomorrow, and will involve women dressed in white clothing. It is being held to ‘demand safety for our peaceful protectors, for a calming of the aggression by authorities, and to recognise our human rights to protest’.