The only company to have fracked for shale gas in the UK, Cuadrilla, is to drill for oil in a West Sussex village from next month.
The energy firm has said the eight-week exploratory drill near Balcombe will not involve fracking, the process of blasting liquid into rock to free natural gas trapped inside, but nonetheless the planned 3,000ft well in the local woodland of Lower Stumble, near Ardingly reservoir, looks set to hit a wall of opposition in this Conservative heartland.
"It seems such an inappropriate site – close to a water course, close to a viaduct, close to a railway and close to a rural road. What has it got going for it as an oil site?" asked Kevin Bottomley, a recently elected parish councillor.
Sarah Hirst, another resident, said: "I'm really nervous about it. We already have a lot of traffic in the village and the roads are not big. The children all walk down here to school and it is already quite scary. I am trying not to be 'not in my backyard' but it could affect our drinking water and therefore I don't think it should go ahead."
A poll by Balcombe parish council last year found that 82% of those surveyed were opposed to fracking, fearing noisy trucks and water contamination. The "nimby"' charge is a sensitive issue for the local councillors.
"There is going to be some industrialisation of our rural community, which we are unlikely to welcome. There are no benefits to the village and there are possible downsides," said Rodney Saunders, vice-chair of the parish council.
But oil drilling, which took place in Balcombe 27 years ago, could be the price of living in a modern country, he said. "We need airports, we need motorways, we need sewage works, but someone somewhere along the line needs to take a decision."
Katy Dunn of the No Fracking in Balcombe campaign, is convinced Cuadrilla plans to start fracking.
"They are a hydraulic fracturing company and you can't get shale gas or oil out of shale rock without fracking," she said, pointing to the company's 2010 planning application that refers to "pumping water under pressure into the natural cracks of the shale formation".
Cuadrilla says that document is irrelevant, but has not ruled out a future application for fracking.
The company insists its summer drill will be "unobtrusive" and has promised to discuss plans with residents and allow them to visit the site.
A spokesman for the local Conservative MP, Francis Maude, said he was watching the issue carefully.
"If Cuadrilla think they can just waltz into the village and do this they have another thing coming," says Dunn.
"People will take non-violent direct action," she says, predicting a blockade at the site.
Others sound a sceptical note. "That won't happen. All that people do here is put up little signs saying 'don't frack here'. You won't get people with placards, it is just not like that here," says one villager, who declined to give her name as she worried about antagonising the anti-fracking groups.
"It is too late to expect to stop oil drilling," says parish councillor-elect Bottomley. "What I am hoping is that we can make sure we have some safeguards in place and actively police the conduct of the drilling companies."
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