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Planning decisions on Lancashire fracking applications may be delayed

Lancashire County Council is seeking to extend the time agreed to make a decision on planning applications for shale gas development.

The council has received applications from energy firm Cuadrilla to drill, frack, and test gas flows, with associated separate applications for environmental monitoring, at two sites in Lancashire - Preston New Road at Little Plumpton, and Roseacre Wood at Roseacre.

Lancashire County Council planners have previously agreed with Cuadrilla that the Preston New Road application will be determined by 5 November 2014 and the application for Roseacre will be determined by 18 November.

The planners have been working since the applications were received in June to consult with the public and other statutory agencies, and assess the applications, to ensure all the information needed to determine them is put before the Development Control Committee.

The council has now written to Cuadrilla asking for further time to receive, organise, assess, and present all the relevant information for the application to be determined by the committee.

The council is seeking to extend the time agreed to determine the application for the Preston New Road site to 31 December 2014, and to extend the time agreed to determine the Roseacre application to 31 January 2015.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .