Lancashire Reform reject permanent fracking ban 'in case technology improves'

The ruling Reform UK group on Lancashire County Council has refused back a permanent ban on fracking - suggesting that technological developments could reduce the risks surrounding shale gas extraction in future.

- by Paul Faulkner

The party has instead said the current temporary block on the controversial process should continue while an "independent review" is carried out of the UK's domestic energy sources.

It was in response to a call from opposition councillors for fracking to be outlawed for good - and led to a testy debate in which Reform branded their political opponents luddites and were themselves accused of being bankrolled by vested interests.

Anti-fracking campaigners in the county have said the decision smacks of local Reform flip-flopping over the issue.

At a national level, the party is wedded to attempting to prove that fracking is safe - and then making it part of the UK's energy mix if that conclusion can be reached. Its deputy leader Richard Tice has championed shale gas as an untapped source of energy - and the party's 2024 general election manifesto included a commitment to "enable major production when safety is proven, with local compensation schemes [put in place]".

However, Reform in Lancashire has previously said that conditions on the Fylde coast - where test drilling took place between 2017 and 2019 - "are not conducive to fracking". The local party pointed to the East of England as the likely location for any future extraction sites, not Lancashire.