Anti fracking campaigners delight after firm ordered to restore land at Preston New Road

Anti-fracking campaigners have reacted with delight after the firm that operated a controversial drilling site in Fylde was given six months to restore it to the farmland that it used to be.

Lancashire County Council has issued an enforcement notice in relation to the plot, off Preston New Road in Little Plumpton.

The move comes after the authority refused a request from energy firm Cuadrilla to allow it an extra two years to restore the land – on top of a time extension that had already been granted.

The enforcement action now announced by County Hall prompted one resident to declare that the community was looking forward to “finally waving [the company] goodbye”.  The site attracted a near-permanent presence from protestors after fracking activity began there in April 2017.

Permission for test drilling was granted by the government six months earlier.  That approval came with a stipulation that the field must be returned to its previous agricultural use within 75 months of work getting under way – meaning all traces of fracking should have been removed by June 2023.

However, as that deadline approached, the firm requested – and received – permission from the local authority for the timeframe to be extended until June 2025 in order to enable the land to be maintained for a 12-month period of “environmental monitoring”, as required under an Environment Agency permit.

Last summer, the company then sought approval for a further two years to restore the site.  But in December 2025, the county council’s development control committee dismissed the bid for more time after hearing that work to plug and decommission the two wells that had been dug on the land did not take place until last spring – just weeks before the expiry of the revised deadline Cuadrilla had been granted in 2023. One committee member, County Cllr Adrian Owens, considered that to be evidence of Cuadrilla failing to act “in good faith”.

As the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) previously revealed, the required monitoring period did not then begin until June 2025 – and the development control committee was told by County Hall planning officer Flo Churchill that it could be considered “unreasonable” to launch enforcement action before that assessment process had been completed.

With monitoring due to conclude this month, the six-month deadline now given by the county council incorporates the time still needed to complete the physical restoration of the site, which Cuadrilla has previously said will take around four months. In spite of the official refusal of further time last December, the firm will effectively have been able to take advantage of 18 of the additional 24 months it requested, from the point at which the original extension expired last June.

Nevertheless, Miranda Cox from Frack Free Lancashire, welcomed what she described as “finally, some meaningful action from Lancashire County Council”.

She added: “We hope it also entails significant consequences for Cuadrilla.

“For too long, their planning breaches and tardiness in compliance have been indulged.

“We look forward to finally waving them goodbye. The damaging saga of Preston New Road may finally have an ending for our community.”

The LDRS understands that while the enforcement notice has been sent to the landowner, as well as Cuadrilla, it is the energy firm that is considered responsible for restoring the site under the planning permission originally granted to it.

Frack Free Lancashire campaigner Claire Stephenson told the LDRS:  “It’s quite shocking that Cuadrilla have been allowed to delay and procrastinate their most welcome departure from Preston New Road.

“The restoration promises have dragged on, following their inevitable failure of operations in Lancashire.

“We’re pleased to see Lancashire County Council finally issue enforcement action, and we will follow it closely to ensure they carry out the restoration in a timely manner, so our community can finally be rid of this nightmare for good.”

The county council says it has been informed that Cuadrilla will now begin removing the fracking infrastructure, marking the start of the restoration process.

The enforcement notice demands that all plant equipment, buildings, security and acoustic fencing, pollution control membranes and areas of hardstanding are removed within four months. The land must be restored to a condition suitable for agricultural use within six months of the notice being served.

The authority says it “will not hesitate to take further action if the requirements of the notice are not met”.

Cabinet member for rural affairs, environment and communities Joshua Roberts said in a statement:  “This situation has gone on for far too long.

“Local residents have had to live with this site for longer than they should have, and it is right that we have now taken firm action to bring this to a conclusion.

“It is positive that work is beginning to remove infrastructure from the site, but it is essential that the full restoration is completed within the required timeframe.”

The LDRS approached Cuadrilla for comment, but had not received a response by the time of publication.

A nationwide moratorium – or temporary ban – was placed on fracking in November 2019 by the then Tory government after earth tremors in the vicinity of the Little Plumpton site, the largest of which measured 2.9 on the Richter scale.

The current Labour administration committed in its general election manifesto in 2024 to banning fracking permanently – and last year set out a roadmap for doing so.