Photo by Steve Fareham [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons Judges in Manchester are to hear all three legal challenges to rulings by the Secretary of State over fracking in Lancashire.
The ministerial approval of plans for shale gas exploration in Lancashire is being challenged in the courts on climate change grounds.
Last week’s decision by a government minister to reopen the planning inquiry into one of Cuadrilla’s fracking sites in Lancashire has made local people more determined to fight it, a spokesperson for the community has told DrillOrDrop.
A campaigner against fracking began a legal challenge today over the government’s decision to allow more time for gas drilling near his home in Cheshire.
The recommendation of the inspector at Cuadrilla’s public inquiry into fracking plans in Lancashire has been sent to government. The Planning Inspectorate confirmed that the report went to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Greg Clark, by yesterday’s deadline.
The government has confirmed it will not allow fracking to be carried out from wells drilled at the surface of English protected areas, including National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and special wildlife sites.
The government has ruled out national limits on the number of fracking sites in shale gas areas. It has also refused to set a minimum distance between wells and homes.
UK Oil and Gas Investments, one of the companies behind the Horse Hill oil well near Gatwick, has paid £3.5m for a Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence (PEDL) in the West Sussex Weald.
Communities facing fracking for shale gas – or the possibility of it – criticised the planning system at a meeting in the Houses of Parliament this afternoon.
A measure to take the siting of underground radioactive waste dumps out of local control came into force today after approval by only 277 of parliament’s 650 MPs. More than 300 MPs did not vote.
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