Fracking planned in North Yorkshire near Flamingo Land

The company wants to hydraulically fracture the well to test how shale gas could be extracted commercially.

A gas company is applying for a licence to frack at a site near the Flamingo Land theme park in North Yorkshire.

Third Energy UK Gas Ltd took samples from an existing gas well near the village of Kirby Misperton in 2013.

It now wants to hydraulically fracture the same well to test if shale gas could be extracted commercially.

Campaign groups opposed to fracking, including Frack Free Ryedale, have said they will fight any application describing it as a "cancer".

Fracking is a technique for extracting gas or oil trapped between layers of rock by forcing the layers open using water under high pressure.

The proposed fracking site lies one mile (1.6km) from the village of Kirby Misperton, where the Flamingo Land Theme park is based.

Third Energy has been operating in North Yorkshire for more than 20 years and already produces gas conventionally from four fields and believes there could be a significant new gas reservoir at Kirby Misperton.

Philip Tate, from campaign group Frack Free Ryedale, said: "We have to stop this because it is going to ruin not just Ryedale but the whole of the north of England.

"Fracking is a massive industrial process, it's like a cancer that just rolls its way across, rotting and ruining everything in its way."

John Dewar, director and general manager with Third Energy, said they were convinced they could frack at the site with the minimum of disruption.

He said; "Prior to submitting the planning application we'd be having at least four public consultations, not to mention a pile of independent surveys and studies that we'd be doing on the site so we'd be addressing everyone's concerns."