A full metal bracket as extremists waste police time ANTI-mining extremists are wasting police time and putting communities at risk during a wave of "lock-on" protests. Activists at exploration sites in NSW are using reinforced locks with thick metal covers to secure themselves to barricades and equipment. The locks are modified in order to extend the amount of time police need to detach the activists. One activist group recently bragged online that it took police more than four hours to cut a protester loose from a site in Gloucester. A CSG protester locking on to machinery at Narrabri against Santos. In some rural areas, where there are only a small number of officers, communities effectively lose on-duty police for as long as it takes to deal with the activists. In other areas, police rescue units are called in, meaning they are then unavailable for genuine rescue work. Some protesters travel great distances to "lock on" at mining sites. Advertising student Beth Gibson recently locked herself to a metal structure at Leard State Forest in northwest NSW. Gibson, the daughter of former Fairfax newspaper editor Gay Alcorn, lives in Melbourne - more than 1100km by road from the protest site. OMG my niece Beth Gibson locked-on at ‪Leard blockade this week! So, so proud of her," tweeted Gibson's aunt Margo Kingston, another former Fairfax staffer. CSG Protesters were arrested for locking on to an AGL work bus at Gloucester. Asked by the Daily Telegraph if lock-ons were an appropriate tactic, considering how much police time they wasted, anti-gas activist Aaron Crowe said it was a matter for protesters to decide "on a person-to-person basis." Driving away from a weekend protest against AGL's natural gas exploration site in Gloucester, Crowe - a student at a university he declined to identify - said protesters were upset that "due process has failed them." Many Gloucester residents are unsympathetic. "It's bloody ridiculous," said Rod Williams, a dairy farmer and deputy chair of business group Advance Gloucester, pointing out that lock-ons "tie up resources like you would not believe." Arm locks in the Pilliga Forest. A protester in the Pilliga Forest locking on. Dairy farmer Peter Graham, whose property was overrun by protesters opposed to Metgasco's plans to drill for gas, said six months later he was still discovering concrete locking points left at gateways by protesters. A CSG protester locking on to machinery at the Pilliga Forest. A CSG protester locking on to machinery at Gloucester. Mr Graham, who says expanded gas mining could be "a new lifeblood" for rural NSW, dismissed activist claims mining harmed farmland. "This is not about gas," he said. This is about pushing the green agenda. A CSG protester being led away by police after being removed from a drill rig. MINING companies have issued strict instructions that workers must not intervene with locked-on protesters. This is to protect companies from potential lawsuits, but it also means they are required to hire expensive security firms. Following cautious guidelines, security staff call police rescue teams to release locked protesters. Informed that it recently took police more than four hours to cut a protester free, a disgusted NSW farmer told The Daily Telegraph: "There is a way to do it in just 15 minutes. It's called an oxy torch. That was the approach in 2006, when Ipswich meat workers in Queensland ­arrived at an abattoir to find animal activists chained to the killing area. Police are usually called to deal with protesters. In this case, the protesters called police. Protester Noah Hannibal said: "This guy was coming at us with an angle grinder, so there were people shaking, there were people in tears. " Originally published as Protesters" full metal bracket waste of time