DrillOrDrop will be posting updates here as a record of the clean-up of Cuadrilla’s fracking site at Preston New Road in Lancashire.

We reported last week that work had begun to remove the green acoustic fencing around the well pad.

Lancashire County Council issued an enforcement notice for the site in June 2026 after the operator, Cuadrilla, failed to meet an approved timetable.

The company now has until 8 November 2026, 80 days away today, to remove remaining plant, buildings, fencing, membranes and aggregates forming the drilling compound.

Replacing subsoil must be completed by 8 December 2026 (110 days). The deadline for returning top soil and making the land suitable for agriculture is 8 January 2027, in 141 days.

Preston New Road was the only UK onshore site to frack horizontal wells. The fracking operations in 2018 and 2019 caused numerous small earthquakes. Fracturing was suspended almost exactly seven years ago after the UK’s largest fracking-induced seismic event.

Thanks to everyone who let us use their photos.

21 August 2026

Eye witnesses report all the acoustic fencing has now been removed

The Fox Group, which has been working on thge site, said the acoustic fencing would be “sold on and reused elsewhere, giving the materials a second life rather than going to waste”. The company posted this video on Facebook today:

Wednesday 19 August 2026

Wednesday 12 August 2026

Work begins to remove the green acoustic fencing.

Photos taken 12 August 2026 and 13 August 2026: Chris Holliday and used with the owners’ consents.