UK enforces faster shale applications

Planning applications for shale gas will be fast-tracked due to new measures announced on 13 August

Shale gas planning applications will be fast-tracked through a new, dedicated planning process, under UK government measures announced 13 August. They include identifying councils that repeatedly fail to determine oil and gas applications within the 16-week statutory timeframe, with subsequent applications potentially decided by the Communities Secretary. Energy Secretary Amber Rudd said the UK needed more, domestically-produced energy supplies – “and shale gas must play a part in that”. The measures come hot on the heels of the rejection in late June by Lancashire County Council of two such applications by Cuadrilla, after several prolonged extensions to the deliberation process. In August,