Energy company Cuadrilla is to return to the West Sussex village which was at the centre of high-profile anti-fracking protests last summer.
West Sussex County Council granted the firm six months permission to carry out oil and gas exploration in an existing hydro-carbon borehole near Balcombe.
About 900 people objected to Cuadrilla returning to flow test at the Lower Stumble exploration site, which drew thousands of protesters opposed to fracking last year.
More than 100 people attended the planning meeting in Horsham, but environmental campaigners fearful the testing could lead on to fracking were left dismayed at the decision to approve.
A report to the committee said the number of vehicles involved in the project was not concerning and emissions would be controlled to ensure water quality would not be compromised.
The report, by the council’s strategic planning manager Michael Elkington, also said the rig and flare on the site would be visible at times but that it would be short lived.
Brenda Pollack, Friends of the Earth’s South East campaigner, said afterwards: “We are extremely disappointed that councillors have not listened to local people.
“This is an attempt by Cuadrilla to set the wheels in motion for dirty fossil fuel extraction. We need the council and our Government to push forward with clean energy solutions.”
Keith Taylor, Green Party MEP for the South East, said: “I fear that today’s decision will open the door to the dangerous dinosaur fossil fuel industry across south-east England.”
Cuadrilla’s latest plan involves cleaning the existing borehole and carrying out “flow-testing” by pumping fluids from the well into tanks on the site and flaring any gas.
The well will then be shut for pressure monitoring for 60 days before being sealed, secured and the site later restored.
Planning committee chairman Heidi Brunsdon said the conditions of the approval, including 24-hour light monitoring near the site to protect wildlife, were “proportionate and fair”.
“Members gave all the issues a good airing and the further conditions we agreed might not go as far as some would have wanted,” she said.
“But we feel they were proportionate and fair in addressing the issues that members of the committee had surrounding this application.”
Last year Cuadrilla drilled horizontally for some 1,700 feet through micrite formation, a type of limestone, at a depth of around 2,350 feet below ground level.
But later its chief executive Francis Egan said the rock underneath the drill site was already naturally fractured, and the company had no intention of fracking there.
Fears have been raised over the potential for small-scale earthquakes and water pollution, and that a drive to exploit new gas reserves will turn the focus away from efforts to develop a low-carbon economy to tackle climate change.
The cost of policing the lengthy protests at Balcombe was nearly £4 million, prompting Sussex police and crime commissioner Katy Bourne to seek financial aid from the Home Office.
