Group wins right to challenge Lancashire fracking monitoring plan

Lancashire County Council rejected shale gas applications from Cuadrilla in the summer

Residents of Roseacre have been granted a judicial review of a monitoring scheme linked to Cuadrilla's plans to frack in the Lancashire village.

Although the county council rejected the firm's main fracking application, it did approve an "array"' of seismic monitoring equipment.

High Court Judge Mrs Justice Lang said it was arguable the council had erred in law in granting planning permission.

A Cuadrilla spokeswoman said it was surprised at the judge's decision.

Mrs Justice Lang overturned an earlier rejection, at the High Court in London, of the Judicial Review application.

The equipment comprises 80 buried seismic monitoring stations, eight surface seismic monitoring stations and three boreholes, in a 4km radius of the proposed Roseacre Wood shale gas exploration site.

Estelle Dehon, lawyer for the Roseacre Awareness Group, said the group argues it was wrong to give permission for monitoring meant to "mitigate" a main fracking proposal, which was refused in July.

A Cuadrilla spokeswoman said: "We are surprised, particularly, as a previous written application was refused."