Fracking companies will be able to avoid strict planning regulations when they set about drilling for shale gas, a Government minister has said.
Communities minister Nick Boles said it would be impractical for on-shore gas companies to personally notify every household and business which sit above a shale gas site.
Environmental campaigners have raised concerns fracking can lead to mini-earthquakes and poison the water table.
Under usual planning rules, developers are obliged to notify every household and business affected by works.
But Mr Boles said while companies would set up a small base on the surface from where they would start drilling, the search for shale gas would potentially cover a much larger area beneath the earth’s surface.
This would make it impractical to notify every householder affected, he said in a written ministerial statement.
Instead, on-shore gas companies would only be expected to take out an advert in a local newspaper to inform residents about their plans to start fracking and place notices in local parishes.
Mr Boles said the Government had today tabled secondary legislation to Parliament so the changes could be implemented.
He said: “We have introduced these changes because underground operations for oil and gas operations are different in character from other forms of development.
“This is because the development on the surface is limited in scale and takes place on a relatively small surface area.
“The associated underground extraction takes place very deep below the earth’s surface, over a wide geographical area.
“As a result, it is often not possible to identify the exact route of any lateral drilling.
“Without the changes to the secondary legislation, the widely-drawn area on planning applications for on-shore oil and gas projects would require the notification of a disproportionately large number of individuals and businesses.
“This would be unnecessarily excessive when other forms of complimentary notification exist.
“In practical terms, in place of the blanket notification, the changes mean that applicants who are applying for planning permission for on-shore oil and gas projects will now be required to publish a notice in a local newspaper and put up site displays in local parishes.
“In addition, a new requirement has been introduced for a site display to be set up in every local authority ward where no parish exists, or where the parish only covers part of the ward.”
Friends of the Earth energy campaigner Tony Bosworth said: “People should be notified personally if firms want to drill or frack for oil and gas under their homes – removing that right is a further blow to local communities who are rightly concerned about the impacts of fracking.
“Earlier this week the Government accepted that fracking could have potentially significant local impacts. Ministers should be strengthening rules to protect local people, not weakening them in yet another sop to an industry that wants to keep us hooked on dirty fossil fuels.”