Cuadrilla to fight on after Lancs fracking blow

ENERGY firm Cuadrilla has pledged to battle on its bid to frack for shale gas at two sites in Lancashire.

This follows a recommendation by Lancashire County Council’s planning inspector that Cuadrilla’s plan to drill and frack at Preston New Road, Little Plumpton and Roseacre Wood be rejected by the authority’s planning committee next week due to concerns about noise and traffic.

Fracking at both sites, on agricultural land, would lead to “unacceptable” levels of noise pollution for neighbouring properties, a council report said.

The decision is a blow to Cuadrilla, which submitted around 9,000 pages of planning documents almost eight months ago.

A Cuadrilla spokesman said the company was “very disappointed” at the recommendations and that the company would try to overcome the concerns raised.

“After an extraordinarily lengthy period of consultation and review of around seven months we are surprised that, at this late point, the planning team at Lancashire County Council has raised objections about background noise for both sites.”

“We believe, supported by independent experts Arup, that we have come forward with measures that would mitigate the noise of drilling and fracturing and the proposed noise levels are within the limits set out in government guidance.”

He added: “We will await the councillors’ decisions on both these applications and we believe that all of the limited issues that have been raised can be resolved.”

The report said the application for Roseacre Wood should also be rejected on the grounds that vehicles going to and from the site would have an “unacceptable” impact on road users, with a “severe” reduction in safety.

It also said that both proposals would be contrary to planning policies because “it has not been satisfactorily demonstrated that noise impacts would be reduced to acceptable levels and would therefore unnecessarily and unacceptably result in harm to the amenity of neighbouring properties by way of noise pollution”.

The application for the Roseacre Wood site “would generate an increase in traffic, particularly HGV movements, that would result in an unacceptable impact on the rural highway network and on existing road users, particularly vulnerable road users and a reduction in overall highway safety that would be severe.”

Last week the Environment Agency gave Cuadrilla permission to frack, but the company won’t be able to proceed without planning permission from the local authority.

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