Campaigners seek judicial review of Lancashire decision on seismic monitoring

Lancashire County Council is facing a potential judicial review challenge to its decision to grant planning permission for seismic monitoring at an exploration site.

In June members of the local authority’s development control committee refused to grant energy company Cuadrilla permission for two applications for temporary shale gas sites at Preston New Road and Roseacre Wood.

The committee also refused a separate planning application to install seismic and ground water monitoring stations around the proposed Preston New Road exploration site.

The councillors did, however, grant permission for the monitoring at Roseacre Wood, subject to certain conditions.

Cuadrilla last month confirmed that it planned to appeal those decisions, including in relation to the conditions imposed to allow the seismic monitoring to go ahead.

Now it has been reported that campaigners from the Roseacre Awareness Group are to lodge papers with the High Court in a bid to challenge the grant of permission for monitoring at Roseacre Wood.

Elisabeth Warner, chair of the Roseacre Awareness Group, told the BBC: "These conditions are designed to protect people, environment and wildlife.

"The monitoring array is over 4 km and will affect about 10 communities. It would have significant impact."

Warner described the decision to grant the monitoring array after refusing the fracking application as "bizarre".

"We're not dinosaurs, we recognise there has to be development but there clearly should be a need for that development,” she said.

"The need for monitoring was outlined as mitigation works for the main application, that need dissolved when the fracking application was refused."

The BBC reported that campaigners had raised £8,000, through crowd funding and fundraisers, to cover legal costs and potential damages.