Legal challenge by anti-fracking group to be heard next month

An anti-fracking group’s appeal against government permission for the process at a Lancashire site will be heard by the High Court on 15 March.

Preston New Road Action Group, represented by law firm Leigh Day, is taking Communities Secretary Sajid Javid to judicial review after he last October overturned Lancashire County Council’s refusal of permission for fracking at a site in Fylde.

Rowan Smith, of law firm Leigh Day, said when the case was originally launched: “Our clients believe that the government has made significant legal errors in overturning the council’s refusal of planning permission to allow fracking on the site.

“For example, the decision appears to have been taken in breach of the council’s development plan, which restricts these types of developments, as well as in breach of the correct planning law tests.”

Mark Smulian