Shale gas firm submits Bassetlaw monitoring plan

Cuadrilla was refused permission to drill and frack in Lancashire in July

A gas firm has applied for planning permission to drill monitoring boreholes in Nottinghamshire linked to exploratory shale gas drilling.

Island Gas Limited wants to install the boreholes off Springs Road, near Misson, to monitor groundwater.

Any shale gas drilling would require a separate application.

Nottinghamshire County Council said methane levels in the water would be checked for 12 months before any fracking could start.

The drilling would be undertaken over two weeks in several locations, and would take place between 07:00 and 19:00 BST. No drilling would occur at weekends or on bank holidays.

'Back clean energy'

Sally Gill, planning manager for the council, said: "The Infrastructure Act 2015 includes a requirement for the level of methane in groundwater to be monitored for a period of 12 months before any associated hydraulic fracturing, which would require a separate planning application, can begin.

"The proposed development would assist IGas in collecting the necessary monitoring information."

Friends of the Earth campaigner Donna Hume, said: "The government should throw its weight behind the UK's huge clean energy potential, which is far more popular with the public, and give David Cameron a much-needed credibility boost ahead of this year's climate talks in Paris."

In July, Lancashire County Council refused permission by shale gas firm Cuadrilla to drill and frack at two sites in the county.

Fracking - or hydraulic fracturing - was suspended in the UK in 2011 following earth tremors in Blackpool, where Cuadrilla previously drilled.

It is a technique in which water and chemicals are pumped into shale rock at high pressure to extract gas.