Fracking firm Cuadrilla has again been given a green light from West Sussex council to explore the oil and gas reserves near the village of Balcombe, almost five years after bitter summer protests against the plans first erupted.

Cuadrilla will be allowed to test wells in the Sussex countryside until 2021 to see whether the fossil fuel flows from underground limestone rock could be a commercial source of homegrown energy.

The unanimous approval of the county council does not include permission to use the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, but is nonetheless likely to reignite local opposition.

The company said it would not start work “straight away” but declined to give a start-date for the test flows.

It is the second time Cuadrilla has sought approval to test oil and gas flows near Balcombe. In 2013, the outcry over its plans helped to galvanise the vocal opposition which has stifled progress for the nascent fracking industry.