In a landmark decision, the secretary of state for communities and local government on 6 October 2016 granted planning permission for shale gas fracking (hydraulic fracturing) at a site in Lancashire.
Thesecretary of state had four appeals before him, all made by the natural resources exploration and production company, Cuadrilla. The appeals were recovered by the secretary of state for his own determination under a direction, issued by the government in August 2015, relating to applications for “exploring and developing shale gas”. The appeals concerned two separate sites at Preston New Road and Roseacre Wood, near Preston, Lancashire, where permission was being sought for the construction and operation of the sites for the drilling of exploratory wells and various testing and monitoring procedures. The testing procedures included hydraulic fracturing. The secretary of state allowed three of the four appeals. The remaining appeal (for the Roseacre Wood site) was not refused, but will be the subject of a reconvened inquiry in due course, to clarify concerns raised over the highway impacts of HGV traffic and to allow Cuadrilla a further opportunity to show that its proposals would be safe.
In his decision, the secretary of state agreed with his inspector that “great weight” should be attached to a written ministerial statement made by (what was then) the Department for Energy and Climate Change and the Department for Communities and Local Government in September 2015. The statement set out the government’s view that there is a “national need” for shale gas exploration and (with the exception of exploration works at Roseacre Wood pending resolution of the highway safety issue) provided significant support for the proposed developments.
The statement also explained the government’s view that shale gas exploration was consistent with the UK’s legally binding obligations to reduce carbon emissions. Despite the historic agreement reached at Paris in December 2015, a few months after the statement was issued, which commits the UK to even more stringent carbon reduction targets, the statement has not yet been revised by the government. The secretary of state, in agreement with the Inspector, decided that it was for the government to decide how to respond to the Paris Agreement through national policy and, unless and until the government indicates otherwise, the statement continues to attract full weight.
The decision is controversial for many reasons, not least because it sees national government overturning a decision to refuse permission by the elected members of Lancashire County Council. It is now the second grant of planning permission (and the first by the secretary of state) for shale gas exploration by fracking in the UK after a decision by North Yorkshire County Council to grant permission earlier in 2016.
Martha Grekos is a partner and head of planning at Howard Kennedy LLP
