Officials recommend that Cuadrilla’s applications to develop two sites to explore for shale gas should not be approved

Controversial plans for fracking in Lancashire should be refused because the drilling would cause “unacceptable” increases in noise and heavy traffic, according to the county council’s planning officers. Their recommendation will be considered by councillors ahead of the deciding votes next week.

The application by shale gas company Cuadrilla to drill wells at two sites also faced objections on a series of other issues, including public health, air and water pollution, subsidence and earthquake risk. But Lancashire county council (LCC) planning officers said these impacts “would be low or could be mitigated” and “concluded that the principle of exploration for shale gas would be acceptable”.

LCC’s planning committee will vote on Cuadrilla’s planning applications on 28 and 29 January. If approved, it will be the first full scale shale gas exploration in the UK. If they reject the plans, Cuadrilla can submit modified plans or appeal, with communities secretary Eric Pickles potentially making the final decision.



David Cameron has said the government is “going all out” for fracking in the UK, claiming it would create jobs and cut the country’s reliance on gas imports. But opponents argue the high pressure fracturing of rocks to release gas risks health and environmental impacts and drives climate change.

“We are absolutely delighted of course,” said Pam Foster, a member of anti-fracking group Residents Action on Fylde Fracking. “It feels like a huge victory. But we are very pragmatic about it. We are still planning our mass demonstration next week.”



“Noise and traffic are very relevant objections but my feeling is that the main objections should have been public health,” she said. “Cuadrilla are not going to go away. They are going to throw everything at it. So the fight goes on.”

A county divided: is Lancashire ready for its fracking revolution? Read more

“We are very disappointed,” said a Cuadrilla spokeswoman. “[But] we believe that the limited [noise and traffic] grounds on which the officers have recommended refusal can be satisfactorily resolved.”

“We note the planning officer is satisfied with all other aspects of the planning applications and in particular their conclusion that properly regulated hydraulic fracturing is ‘very low risk’,” she said. “In the end [LCC] councillors will have to weigh the relatively minor impacts which affect only a small number of households ... against the wider local and national, jobs, growth and economic as well as energy security opportunities.”

Cuadrilla were recently awarded permits from the Environment Agency.

Lee Petts, a member of the North West energy task force, a coalition of local businesses and financed by Cuadrilla said: “We call on councillors to grasp this opportunity to create the jobs and investment that Lancashire badly needs.”

But Friends of the Earth’s north-west campaigner Helen Rimmer said: “We are delighted planning officers have recognised the serious effects these developments would have on neighbouring residents. Councillors must now act on this and the tens of thousands of objections they have received and reject Cuadrilla’s fracking applications next week. Only by doing so will they ensure that fracking is not allowed to cause further climate change while also putting communities and the local environment at risk.”

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: “The government continues to support the development of the shale industry in the UK [but] this is a matter for the local planning authority to determine.”

Fracking in Lancashire

Cuadrilla have applied to drill up to four wells at each of two sites, Roseacre Wood and Preston New Road. The LCC planning officers concluded the Rosacre Wood plan would involve a “severe” increase in traffic, particularly HGVs, creating an “impact on existing road users, particularly vulnerable road users and overall highway safety”.



At both sites the planning officers said the fracking plans, particularly drilling, would lead to “significant increase in night-time background noise levels” for two years, with “significant adverse effects on the health and quality of life” of nearby residents. At Preston New Road, the planning officers, reported: “LCC commissioned its own noise survey which identified lower background levels at night than [Cuadrilla], indicating that there would be a greater increase in noise levels than predicted by [Cuadrilla].”

In July 2014, officials from West Sussex county council found that fracking company Celtique Energie presented data that hugely underplayed the number of heavy lorries needed for its planned drilling operations while other experts for the South Downs national park said the company’s claims about noise were “opaque” and underestimated the increase in noise levels. The company was refused planning permission and is now appealing the decision.