Planning permission refused for second Lancashire Fracking site

Planning permission has been refused by the Government for a fracking site in Lancashire, after an appeal by energy firm Cuadrilla.

Roseacre Wood is one of two sites in Fylde which were originally refused permission by Lancashire County Council, but which went to public inquiry and a decision from the Government after Cuadrilla appealed.

In October 2016, ministers gave the go-ahead for fracking at Preston New Road.

And the then communities secretary Sajid Javid said he was "minded" to allow Cuadrilla's appeal and grant planning permission at Roseacre Wood if highway safety issues linked to the large articulated lorries that would be going to and from the site could be dealt with.

But in a decision published today, Communities Secretary James Brokenshire has dismissed the appeal and refused planning permission for the drilling and fracking of four wells at the site.

Efforts to address concerns about the high number of HGVs using country lanes around the site - which are also used by cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders as well as other vehicles - "fall short" of what is needed.

In the absence of satisfactory measures to deal with road safety, the development "would have a serious and very significant adverse impact on the safety of people using the public highway", the decision said.

Cuadrilla began fracking at Preston New Road last October, but has had to halt operations on several occasions because tremors were detected above allowable limits.

Both Cuadrilla and another shale firm Ineos have called for the Government to relax the rules on seismic activity linked to fracking, but ministers have said they have no plans to review the regulations.