Britain’s fledgling frackers got a short in the arm as a High Court judge gave the go-ahead for shale gas extraction at Kirby Misperton in Yorkshire.
Planning permission for Barclays (LON:BARC) bank owned Third Energy to extract shale gas was granted in May, but Friends of the Earth and local residents lodged an objection.
However, Justice Lang today refused their call for a judicial inquiry and said that the council had acted lawfully in granting the company permission to frack.
The council’s decision gave ‘a considerable degree of protection to residents’ and had also taken in to account the impact of climate change, the judge concluded.
Anti-fracking campaigners said they were devastated by the ruling and intended to maintain their protest despite the verdict.
Third Energy, which is almost wholly owned by Barclays private equity arm, was among the first companies to apply for permission to frack in the UK.
It welcomed today’s ruling.
“The council set 40 conditions to the grant of planning permission which the company is well on its way to satisfying.
"It is worth remembering that we are nearly two years into a planning application process for a proposed operation that would take less than three months to complete,” it said in a statement on its website.
Rasik Valand, chief executive, added the permission places “a great obligation on Third Energy to prove that we can carry out the test fracs in the same safe, discreet and environmentally sensitive way that we have conducted our gas exploration and energy generation activities over the past two decades.”
In October, Cuadrilla received the go-ahead to frack near Little Plumpton in Lancashire after the government overturned the county council’s decision not to give approval.
Cuadrilla is partly owned by British Gas group Centrica (LON:CNA).