Minister responds to court ruling on fracking planning policy
The government has made its first public comment on the legal challenge which quashed a key section of planning policy on shale gas and fracking.
The government has made its first public comment on the legal challenge which quashed a key section of planning policy on shale gas and fracking.
A High Court judge ruled this morning that the government does not have to carry out a new public consultation on its planning policy on fracking.
The regulation and impact of induced earth tremors accounted for more than a third of the parliamentary answers about fracking from the energy minister this week.
The government ignored new science on the climate change impact of shale gas sites when it revised planning policy on fracking, the High Court in London heard today.
A government document that shapes planning decisions across England is unlawful, Friends of the Earth, said in a challenge today.
Fashion designer, Dame Vivienne Westwood, and her son, Joe Corre, took part in a Christmas-themed protest against government planning policy outside the Royal Courts of Justice this morning.
A second environmental group is taking legal action against the government over its new planning policy on fracking and onshore oil and gas.
The Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, has refused to renew a lease of land for oil drilling in Surrey because of the damage it could do to ancient woodland.
The anti-shale gas group, Talk Fracking, has taken the first step in what could be a court challenge to government policy.
The government has made changes to national planning policy on onshore oil and gas even though most of the people who took part in a consultation disagreed with them.