THREE generations of an Ambleside family stood trial for their role in leading a 'passionate' anti-fracking protest on the Fylde coast.

Gillian Kelly, 73 and her son Sebastian Kelly, 49, both of Dilly Garth, Loughrigg, and Ms Kelly's granddaughter Megan Kelly, 20, were found guilty yesterday of obstructing the highway after they staged a 'lock on' protest outside the Cuadrilla fracking site on the A583 Preston New Road last July.

Also guilty of the same offence were friends of the family Toby Fairlove, 56, Molly Hopkinshaw, 27 and Beatrice Patrick, 27, along with Ms Kelly's partner Paul Martyn, 62. They were each given a six month conditional discharge, ordered to pay £250 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

Vincent Yip, prosecuting, told Preston Magistrates' Court that on July 12, 2017, the protestors unloaded green boxes with 'Families against Fracking' emblazoned on them from a truck, and locked their arms into the boxes on the road's central reservation.

Mr Yip showed footage depicting how, in doing so, the protestors had caused a melee as they, along with others not initially involved in the action, rushed to unload the truck in spite of police trying to stop them.

Sergeant Riley, of Lancashire Police, said that once protestors had locked on, police, who had arrived on the scene within 12 seconds, closed the road as they claimed that traffic could not get past.

They also removed the keys from the truck delivering the boxes so Fairlove, who was driving, would not move the vehicle and hit anybody.

After they refused to move from the central reservation, the six 'locked on' defendants were cut free and arrested. Fairlove had been arrested previously as his truck was obstructing the road. Police said that he would not drive on when asked.

However, Nicola Hall, defending, argued that the actions of the protestors had not been unreasonable, as their presence in the central reservation did not block the traffic.

Miss Hall said that the defendants were exercising their right to protest peacefully. It had been the actions of the police in deciding to close the road, and their taking of the truck's keys preventing it from moving, that caused the obstruction.

The defence claimed that the protestors had felt the need to take direct action as they felt their previous letter writing and campaigning against government decisions to allow fracking 'manifestly fell on deaf ears'.

The defendants told the court that their opposition to fracking intensified when the national government overruled without consultation Lancashire County Council's refusal to allow the process on the Fylde.

Giving evidence at court, Gillian Kelly, who grew up on the Fylde and has lived at Loughrigg for 40 years, said: "We have a duty to take action when the government is wrong and corrupt. I didn't feel the democratic process was working at all.

"I could see that the government was in the pockets of corporations with money and lobbyists. It was just so wrong what was happening.

"This seemed like the right thing to do because it felt proportionate to the wrong that was being done, and entirely necessary."

Sebastian Kelly told the court that the protestors wanted to raise awareness of their cause "to create sufficient groundswell so that no longer could the government run roughshod over public opinion."

He denied that they ever had any intention to block the road. He told the court that they had originally planned to place the boxes in the bell mouth at the entrance to the Cuadrilla site.

However, a contraflow put in place by police in response to another anti-fracking protest on the same day meant the truck had to approach from the east rather than the west. This meant they could not access the bell mouth and so decided to use the central reservation instead.

The court heard that anti-fracking protesters are often tolerated using this space, and so Mr Kelly and the other defendants believed it would be safe to do so again.

Mr Yip showed the court images of the protestors in which some of the boxes were partially outside of the central reservation and therefore in the carriageway.

"This protest was on an arterial route that is often busy. It is also clear from police images that the boxes are partially on the carriageway. That is clearly an obstruction," said Mr Yip.

He also suggested that Fairlove had deliberately blocked the road with his truck, and refused to move when police asked him to.