The communities secretary, Sajid Javid, “misunderstood key local and national planning policies” when he gave the green light to fracking in Lancashire, campaigners have told the court of appeal.

Leading judges were urged on Wednesday to overturn a government decision to approve a fracking site at Preston New Road in Lancashire.

The last-ditch legal appeal was described by one campaigner as a “challenge to the government’s ‘drill first, ask questions later’ approach to fracking”.

Cuadrilla began drilling at its Preston New Road site this month and said it expected to frack at the end of the year.

It would be the first fracking operations in Britain since 2011, when tests near Blackpool were established to be the likely cause of tremors of magnitude 2.3.

Lancashire council had rejected the plans in 2015 but Javid approved them following a public inquiry. Campaigners tried unsuccessfully to challenge the decision through judicial review, which was heard in March and dismissed by a high court judge in April, but were given the right to appeal.

At the start of a two-day hearing, David Wolfe QC, for the anti-fracking campaigners Preston New Road Action Group, submitted that “the secretary of state, through his inspector, misunderstood key local and national planning policies”.

In written grounds of appeal, he asked the three judges, Lord Justice Simon, Lord Justice Lindblom and Lord Justice Henderson, to “set aside” the ruling of Mr Justice Dove in the high court and to “quash the secretary of state’s decision”.

The campaigners’ solicitors, from the law firm Leigh Day, said the appeal was based on four grounds – that Javid and the inspector made “errors of law” by “misinterpreting” a policy protecting against harm to the landscape; “wrongly applying” the national planning policy framework; denying a fair hearing during the planning inquiry; and “using a wildly different test for assessing the impact on the quality of life of those living nearby”.

The judges will hear arguments on behalf of both the communities secretary and Cuadrilla that the challenges should be dismissed.

David Elvin QC, on behalf of Javid, said in written submissions that there was “no merit” in any of the arguments put forward by the appellants.

A spokeswoman for the Preston New Road Action Group said: “We trust that the secretary of state’s decision to allow fracking at Preston New Road will be found unsound, and Lancashire county council’s original decision will be reinstated.

“Even before any fracking has commenced, the local community has been subjected to disruption. They have suffered stress due to the process and, since work commenced on the site, their day-to-day lives have been disrupted by convoys of HGVs, a massive police presence and many road closures.”

Gayzer Frackman, an environmental campaigner and appellant in the case, said in a statement before the hearing: “This legal challenge tests the government’s ‘drill first, ask questions later’ approach to fracking.

“The government must be held to account for failing to protect UK citizens from the health impacts of fracking and the untold damage it will cause to our environment, our climate, and those living near the site in Lancashire.”

Hundreds of anti-fracking activists have campaigned outside the 1.5-hectare (3.7-acre) plot at Preston New Road in the Fylde, Lancashire, for almost a year, with daily clashes erupting between activists and Cuadrilla’s private security contractors earlier this summer.

Scuffles between protesters and security guards increased from the start of July as activists marked what they called a month of “rolling resistance”.

Cuadrilla has condemned what it described as the “increased illegal and aggressive behaviour of activists”, who it claimed were mostly from outside the area. The firm said this week it remained “confident that the planning consent will not be overturned”.

