UK Shale Developers 'Must Engage Locally' : County

Involving local communities at the earliest opportunity in any shale gas development proposals should be compulsory for the developer, according to Nottinghamshire County Council. 

The view – which was unanimously supported by its Planning and Licensing Committee December 11 – will be submitted as the county's position to the UK government, as part of the latter's ongoing consultation on compulsory community involvement for shale gas development which closes early in January 2019. The county said that: “…making early engagement by the shale gas industry compulsory will allow the developer to understand and address locally specific issues and enable a better scheme to come forward when an application is submitted.”

Planning decisions on shale gas developments in England still go to local planning authorities, but if they reject them, the government can overturn their rejections. Elsewhere in the UK, there are either bans or moratoriums on hydraulic fracturing (fracking); indeed Wales firmed up its ban this week. 

Shale gas explorer IGas has licences in north Nottinghamshire (English east Midlands) where two weeks ago spud its first vertical well but to date it has not applied to frack there.