The leader of Conservative-controlled Derbyshire County Council has said government plans designed to fast-track shale gas will cut local authorities out of decisions with the biggest impact on communities.
Campaigners who failed to block an injunction against protests outside Cuadrilla’s Lancashire fracking site said the fight was not over. But they said case law and the cost of legal action were major hurdles.
The outcome of the Roseacre Wood fracking inquiry, which ended last week, will be decided by James Brokenshire.
Mark Robinson, Campaigns and Policy Assistant at Campaign to Protect Rural England, argues that radical changes are needed to national planning policy to prevent the threat of fracking to the countryside and the communities who live and enjoy it.
The oil company, Angus Energy, has applied for permission to produce from its Lidsey site near Bognor Regis in West Sussex for another 10 years.
Updated 13 November 2017 with reaction to the shale wealth fund proposals Communities should have greater control of the decisions that affect them, the government said today in its response to a consultation on the proposed shale wealth fund.
In the past half hour, the Scottish Energy Minister, Paul Wheelhouse, announced to the Scottish Parliament: “Fracking cannot and will not take place in Scotland”.
