The fracking company, Cuadrilla, has revealed it is to seek two more years at its mothballed shale gas site near Blackpool – just four days before the land should have been returned to agriculture.

A notice in today’s Lytham St Annes Express said the company intended to submit a planning application to extend the life of Preston New Road at Little Plumpton.

Planning permission, granted in February 2023, gave Cuadrilla two years in which restore the site .

That deadline expires on Sunday 8 June 2025 (see planning notice below and bullet point at the bottom of this article).

Today’s press notice is a planning formality that alerts landowners to a forthcoming planning application.

It gives them 21 days to send representations to Lancashire County Council under Article 13 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015.

It does not replace a formal planning application.

Cuadrilla repeatedly assured residents and council planners that it would meet the 8 June 2025 site restoration deadline.

Most recently, the company’s planning consultant told planners:

“It remains Cuadrilla’s intention to restore the site back to its original condition by June 2025.”

But local people remained sceptical that the deadline would be met.

A spokesperson for Preston New Road Action Group, which has campaigned against Cuadrilla’s operations at the site, said today:

“So, Cuadrilla are up to their old tricks once again. In June 2023 they sought a two year extension to complete the site restoration and, despite strong local opposition, the Lancashire County Council Development Committee narrowly voted to allow it. At the time the committee were warned that two years down the line they would considering a further extension and, surprise, surprise, look where we are.

“Cuadrilla have frittered away the last two years, taking no action to do anything to restore the site until the last possible moment, and now, assuming they have plugged the wells, appear to be saying they still need two years to complete what they have previously said was a 12 month task. What possible justification will they come up with for this?

“We can only hope that the Lancashire County Council Development Committee will realise that Cuadrilla take them for fools and sanction them for not meeting their obligations under the permission given to them in 2023.” 

A spokesperson for Frack Free Lancashire said:

“We are completely unsurprised by this latest move. Cuadrilla has shown a total disregard for conditions and an appalling contempt for the community. It is clear that they are now hoping that a change in political leadership at LCC will allow them to maintain their completely unwelcome presence at Preston New Road. Whatever the future holds, Cuadrilla can expect determined and sustained resistance.”

Miranda Cox, a member of the Preston New Road community liaison group, said:

“Having already received generous concessions from Lancashire County Council, Cuadrilla are now dragging their heels over the site restoration. Residents have never trusted the company to comply with their planning obligations,  in fact we warned the Council that this could happen.  It really is time this toxic industry were forced to comply and leave Fylde for good”.

Cuadrilla was apparently more than five months late in plugging and abandoning the Preston New Road wells. The planning decision required that work to be carried out by 8 December 2024.

In January 2025, Lancashire County Council gave Cuadrilla four weeks to start plugging the wells or face formal enforcement action. At the time, the company said the rig would arrive “towards the end of February”. More details DrillOrDrop reported that the workover rig was installed on 12 March 2025. The rig left at the end of May 2025.

• Today’s article 13 notice refers to an end date for the current planning permission of 30 June 2025. But the decision notice, embedded in this article, states that plugging and abandonment must be carried out by 8 December 2024 and site restoration by 8 June 2025.