Fracking site decommissioning too slow - neighbours

Cuadrilla's Preston New Road site in Fylde lies dormant

People living close to what was the UK's first horizontal fracking site say they are frustrated over how long it is taking to dismantle it.

Cuadrilla has been given until 8 December to plug its shale gas wells at Preston New Road in Fylde.

But Lancashire County Council said it is "concerned" the firm might miss the deadline, and neighbours said the company "wasn't doing anything".

Cuadrilla - which had been one of the leading hydraulic fracturing companies in the UK until the process was banned over fears it could cause earth tremors - has been approached for comment.

Susan Halliday says she wants Cuadrilla to "get on with the job" and return its Preston New Road site to grassland

The company has been told the site must be returned to agricultural land by June 2025.

Staunch fracking opponent Susan Halliday, who lives opposite the Preston New Road site, said there had been "absolutely no progress in decommissioning the site".

She added: "The wells still have to be plugged and capped, the flare stack needs to be removed, the pad on the site needs to be taken away, and then there's all the fencing and lighting that needs to be removed.

"And then the field needs the topsoil putting back and restoring."

Her husband Chris also said he was "frustrated" by the lack of movement.

"Their progress reports are basically the same each six months, with the date changed.

"You know, 'We're planning this and we're planning that' but they're not actually doing anything, so it's really, really frustrating."

Jason Addy, a lecturer in law at the University of Central Lancashire, said: "The planning rules and conditions are absolutely clear."

How the Preston New Road site previously looked

Hydraulic fracturing is a technique for recovering gas and oil from shale rock.

It involves drilling into the earth and directing a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals at a rock layer, to release the gas inside.

The injection of fluid at high pressure into the rock can cause tremors.

In 2019 the Conservative government suspended fracking indefinitely after a report by the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) said it was not possible to predict the probability or size of tremors.

During her brief time in Downing Street two years ago, Liz Truss lifted the moratorium on fracking in areas where there was local support.

But her successor as prime minister, Rishi Sunak, soon restored the full ban in October 2022.

The Labour government has said it had no plans to allow fracking.

Lancashire County Council said it was "in discussion with [Cuadrilla] as to how the restoration of the site can be progressed".