CAMPAIGNERS from Bolton Against Fracking have reacted with anger to government plans to allow energy companies to run shale gas pipelines under people’s homes, without their permission.

The move was announced yesterday in the Queen’s Speech, which lays out the government’s law-making agenda for the next year.

Under the plans, companies looking to use hydraulic fracking as a way of harvesting shale gas and oil will be able to install pipes under private land to move the gas, without breaking trespass laws.

Anna Cook, from Bolton Against Fracking, said the government was “robbing people of the right to say no to fracking under their homes”.

The group has campaigned against any attempts by energy companies to frack within Bolton’s boundaries.

She said: “The fact that David Cameron has failed to reassure people that fracking is good and safe for Britain, as we have seen through the increase in public opposition towards it, means that he now feels as though he has to railroad it through.

“Shale gas will not deliver energy security. We will now step up the pressure on our elected representatives to do all they can to oppose this Bill.”

Hydraulic fracking is the controversial technique of drilling into the earth and directing a high-pressure water mixture into the rock to release the gas inside.

Opponents say it can lead to earth tremors and ground water could be contaminated by the chemicals used.