Zac Goldsmith has warned ministers that their plans to fast-track fracking risk turning whole regions of the country against the Conservatives and igniting a political backlash.

The Tory MP for Richmond said people had legitimate concerns about fracking and that government proposals to bypass local planning decisions on shale gas wells were a mistake.

“Fracking is an issue that has the potential to turn whole regions against the government,” he told the Guardian. “The drilling rigs and pollution, the industrial equipment and sheer volume of trucks all make it an alarming prospect for communities up and down the country.”

Some Tory MPs have been angered by the mooted planning changes, which would allow shale gas wells to be drilled without the need for planning permission and class fracking sites as nationally significant infrastructure. “If the government’s answer is simply to change the planning rules so that even elected local representatives have no say on the issue, then it will have to be prepared for a huge backlash,” Goldsmith said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Zac Goldsmith: ‘Fracking is an issue that has the potential to turn whole regions against the government’ Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty

Fracking near Blackpool has caused two minor earthquakes in 24 hours. The shale company Cuadrilla was forced to halt operations for 18 hours on Friday after a 0.8-magnitude tremor, and operations that restarted on Saturday morning triggered a second tremor. Saturday’s tremor is the 18th in the area since fracking recommenced 12 days ago at the UK’s only active site. It was too small to be felt above ground and was not categorised as a “red” event by the Oil and Gas Authority, unlike the tremor on Friday, because it occurred after operations had finished.

Goldsmith’s comments came ahead of a debate in parliament on Wednesday on the involvement of local communities in shale gas developments. Nearly two dozen Tory MPs were reported in the Financial Times to be preparing to rebel against any attempt to push through the changes to planning rules, which could lead to a government defeat given that Labour is opposed to fracking.

Mark Menzies, the Conservative MP who called this week’s debate, said: “I am opposed to the move to give hydraulic fracturing permitted development rights. To do so would stop local communities raising extremely important issues, including traffic management, which will vary vastly from site to site and cannot be dealt with with one piece of coverall legislation.”

Menzies’s constituency of Fylde in Lancashire is home to the fracking site. He said the shutdown on Friday was a sign that “our regulations are working as promised”.

Lee Rowley, the Conservative MP for North East Derbyshire, which has several prospective shale sites, said the government needed to rethink its planning changes.

“There is real concern about the government’s proposals to loosen fracking rules,” Rowley said. “More and more MPs are showing that they do not think the role of local communities should be reduced in such a controversial planning area.”