The application to drill would have seen fracking take place at Preston New Road in tiny Plumpton, between Preston and Blackpool.
Advertisement
The rejection was a surprise, as planning officials had offered approval to the project.
The development would cause an unacceptable adverse impact on the landscape, arising from the drilling equipment, noise mitigation equipment, storage plant, flare stacks and other associated development.
The decision will be a huge blow to AIM-listed companies such as IGas Energy PLC, which is presently working on a five-year plan to develop shale gas sites in the North West and East Midlands, just south of Cuadrilla’s sites, alongside major worldwide partners Total, GDF Suez and INEOS. That backing has been challenged by local communities, which fear that injecting chemically treated water into the ground will pollute the environment and cause earthquakes.
Lancashire county councillors have rejected the second fracking project from oil and gas giant Cuadrilla Resources in a week.
“Both Cuadrilla and the government must respect Lancashire’s decision and not try to force unpopular fracking on these communities”.
For people in Lancashire, it has been a high energy and emotional week.
Photographs showed protesters holding placards with “Don’t Be Fracking Idiots”, “Green Energy, Not Dirty Energy” and other slogans.
Greenpeace, meanwhile, has described the council’s decision as “a Waterloo” for the fracking industry.
Labour’s energy spokesman Lewis Macdonald said developers may view Scotland as a “soft touch” for shale gas exploration after Deputy First Minister John Swinney said he wanted taxes from the process devolved to Holyrood.
Anti-fracking campaigners reacted with delight as the decision filtered to them outside County Hall.
The MP for Brighton has responded to the news that Lancashire County Council this morning refused planning application for fracking in tiny Plumpton.
‘The decision to refuse this application has been reached by a vote of the committee, which is composed of elected councillors, and each member of the committee has ultimately cast their vote based on the evidence they have heard and whether they think the proposal is acceptable in planning terms, and to the people they represent.’.
“We completed the most comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessments ever carried out for operations of this kind”.
The assessment included work from independent environmental scientists and engineering specialists and, according to Cuadrilla, it demonstrated “beyond question” that the proposed operations can be conducted safely and without damage to people’s health or their environment.
Advertisement
Only one natural gas well has been fracked in the United Kingdom, in 2012.
