FOUR protestors have been arrested after chaining themselves to security fences at a site where they claim the controversial process of fracking is being used.

On a live stream of the protest posted online, several police cars and vans can be seen taking the protestors away from the Doe Green site, just off Farnworth Road, Penketh.

Cheshire Police has confirmed that one woman and three men have been arrested for aggravated trespass.

At 1.25pm the woman had her chain removed but it was not until 4.30pm that all were arrested.

The four protestors had locked themselves to security fences around the well heads this morning, the Guardian believes.

It is thought that although the site has been in use for several years, the protestors have only recently come to believe that fracking has been used to extract coal bed methane or coal seam gas.

The protestors claimed in the videos that they wanted to raise awareness of what they believe is being done by IGas, the energy company which runs the site.

At the start of the videos, one protestors said: “We need to raise awareness.

“We need people to really research into this site and what they are saying because there is a lot of ambiguity in what they are saying and a lot of confusion.

“What we want is IGas to be honest about exactly what it is doing here, exactly what it has done here and exactly what it intends to do here because it is clear this is the central hub.”

In one video, the man recording can be heard saying: “It was said that this industry doesn’t exist in this country.

“But there are people here now in this compound proving that it does exist and it is operating right now. That they have fracked.

“The coal in this country is too hard for them to get the gas out without fracking it. If this well is flowing, they have fracked it.”

But IGas has denied that they are currently using fracking at the site or that any of the wells in use have been fracked.

An IGas spokesman commented: “While we respect the right to protest, we do not feel that trespassing on an operational site on private land is either responsible or safe way to go about this.

“The protestors have never engaged with us directly to ask these questions which we are more than happy to answer.

"We are not fracking at Doe Green and none of the wells that currently produce gas from the coal seams have actually been fracked.

"We have stimulated one well at Doe Green with water prior to 2011. Hydraulic fracturing in the United Kingdom has been common in North Sea oil and gas fields since the late 1970s, and has been used in over 200 British onshore oil and gas wells since the early 1980s.”