Fracking must be banned in Redbridge, according to environmental campaigners.

Waltham Forest Council has issued a public statement banning the practice after local authorities were offered financial incentives by the Government to allow testing in their areas. 

And now the Wanstead and Woodford branch of Friends of the Earth is calling on Redbridge Council to follow suit and block the controversial drilling tehnique.

In an open letter to the authority, co-ordinator Diana Korchien said: "Fracking, especially in heavily populated urban areas, raises very serious environmental concerns.

“We believe that it is the first duty of any local authority to protect the public health of its citizens and we are asking Redbridge now to follow the lead of Waltham Forest and a growing number of councils up and down the country, and ban fracking in Redbridge.”

A Redbridge Council spokeswoman said: “We have no reason to suppose any land within the borough would ever be suitable for this kind of gas or oil extraction.

"So the council has not come to any view on the topic, and is highly unlikely ever to need to do so.”