A last-ditch legal challenge to prevent fracking in Lancashire is being launched at the court of appeal.
The case brought by anti-fracking protesters, to be heard on Wednesday and Thursday, seeks to overturn planning consent that was granted to Cuadrilla by the communities secretary, Sajid Javid, last October.
Lancashire council had rejected the plans in 2015 but Javid approved them following a public inquiry. Campaigners tried unsuccessfully to challenge the decision through judicial review, which was heard in March and dismissed by a high court judge in April, but were given the right to appeal.
Cuadrilla began drilling at its Preston New Road site this month and said it expects to frack at the end of the year.
It would be the first fracking in Britain since 2011, when tests near Blackpool were established to be the likely cause of tremors of a magnitude 2.3.
Hundreds of anti-fracking activists have campaigned outside the 1.5-hectare (3.7-acre) plot at Preston New Road in the Fylde, Lancashire, for almost a year, with daily clashes between activists and Cuadrilla’s private security contractors earlier this summer.
Scuffles between protesters and security guards increased from the start of July as activists marked what they called a month of “rolling resistance”.
Cuadrilla has condemned what it described as the “increased illegal and aggressive behaviour of activists” it claimed were mostly from outside the area. The firm said this week it “remains confident that the planning consent will not be overturned”.
But solicitor Rowan Smith, of Leigh Day, which is representing the anti-fracking campaigners, said: “The Republic of Ireland’s recent ban shows how controversial it would be to allow fracking in Lancashire’s valued countryside.
“Throw in the fact that central government is seeking to overturn the decision of a locally elected council, and it is obvious why Preston New Road Action Group is taking this fight all the way.”
A spokeswoman for the Preston New Road Action Group added: “We trust the secretary of state’s decision to allow fracking will be found unsound, and Lancashire county council’s original decision will be reinstated.”
