Communities secretary Sajid Javid has overruled Lancashire Council’s decision to reject fracking at two sites in Lancashire.

The Council’s decision, reached at the end of June 2015, to reject fracking at two sites near Blackpool was overturned by the communities secretary on Thursday, with Javid using newly grated powers green-light drilling at one site, but requesting more information on a second. Highly controversial shale gas fracking can now go ahead at Preston New Road, but an application to drill at Roseacre Wood has been delayed pending more information on transport considerations.

This means exploration cannot currently go ahead at Roseacre, but monitoring work can proceed, and the communities secretary has reserved for himself the judgement on the site’s future.  

Local groups and environment campaigners have reacted with fury to the announcement. Two years ago, local farmers rode tractors to Preston Town Hall during a debate on drilling for gas in protest against the proposals.

Ken Cronin, of UKOOG, which represents shale gas interests in the UK, said, “The approval of the application at Preston New Road is an important step forward towards determining what gas resources we have under our feet, with the aim of developing a sustainable onshore natural gas exploration industry in the UK. “We need the gas to heat our homes, produce electricity, supply our industries and to reduce our dependency on imports. The onshore oil and gas industry is committed to producing this gas in the safest and most environmentally sensitive way possible and to creating jobs and opportunities in the supply chain.”

However, local group Stop Fylde Fracking said its members are “disgusted that the democratic process has been overruled,” noting that, “Despite posturing about localism, the government has ridden rough shod over our local parish, borough and county councils who all said no to fracking at both sites.” In a statement, the group offered sympathies to local residents who will be affected by the work and said of the delays at Roseacre, “Disgracefully, this decision rests on the effects of traffic and not on those of health and the environment.”

The local group also expressed anger that the shale gas industry is benefitting from government support, when support for renewables is being cut.

Also commenting on the decision, Greenpeace campaigner, Hannah Martin said, “This fudged decision shows the government is struggling to force fracking on a reluctant nation. Fracking will put our countryside and air quality at risk. Digging up more fossil fuels that we can’t burn if we are to honour the international agreement we signed in Paris and is coming into force soon makes little economic or environmental sense.

 “Theresa May cannot build a 21st-century industrial strategy on a polluting and inexperienced fracking sector that won’t deliver for years, if ever. If the PM wants to promote an affordable and fair energy system whilst bolstering business growth and job creation, renewable and smart energy technologies are the way to go.”