The majority of Tory councillors do not support Government moves to change planning rules to fast track fracking, a poll suggests.
The Government is consulting on giving companies “permitted development” rights for non-fracking shale exploration so they would not have to apply for planning permission.
Permitted development is commonly used in home extensions to allow small-scale work without planning permission.
It has also proposed a move to deal with planning applications for fracking at a national level, under the nationally significant infrastructure projects regime, as part of efforts to get the industry up and running.
But a poll, which quizzed 507 Conservative councillors in England in areas with oil and gas exploration licences, found four-fifths thought fracking companies should have to submit a planning application before drilling.
Almost two-thirds believe it should be up to the local authority to grant final planning consent in shale applications, according to the survey by Survation for the Campaign to Protect Rural
England and Friends of the Earth.
Daniel Carey-Dawes, from the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “It is clear that the Government does not have the backing of its own local councillors for its proposals to fast-track fracking.
“These plans erode the principles of localism, they diminish local communities’ democratic powers and undermine the fundamentals of the local planning system, and councillors recognise this.”
He urged the Government to listen to the views of its councillors and drop the plans immediately.
Rose Dickinson, Friends Of The Earth campaigner, said: “Permitted development was meant to help people carry out small-scale things like putting up a garden shed, not drilling for gas.
“And this poll shows that Conservative councillors overwhelmingly agree.
“By wresting away from people the modest power they had to have a meaningful say, communities and councillors are being side-lined by the government with these plans.”
She added: “Significantly, the fact also remains that fracking is fundamentally incompatible with avoiding climate chaos.”
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