The decision to allow fracking in an area of outstanding natural beauty is being challenged in the High Court.

The Frack Free Balcombe Residents Association is bringing legal action after the green light was given for fuel drilling near Balcombe, Haywards Heath, in the High Weald area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB).

Fracking involves drilling into the ground and injecting a high-pressure liquid into rock to release gas or oil to be used a fuel.

The process can cause tremors, with one in Blackpool lasting for more than 100 hours.

West Sussex County Council refused planning permission for the Balcombe project in March 2021, but an appeal against the refusal was allowed by an inspector in February this year.

At the High Court in London, the AONB’s barrister David Wolfe KC said the inspector “simply failed to consider the development’s contribution to climate change” and that the decision was unlawful.

“The inspector took into account the benefits of future hydrocarbon production which weighed ‘greatly’ in favour of the development and indeed was the overriding consideration,” he read from a written submission.

“The point is that he also then needed also to take into account the impacts of gaining those benefits.

“In other words, the inspector needed to account for the environmental impacts of such future production, which he did not do.”

Mr Wolfe said the project’s potential impacts on nearby Ardingly Reservoir and whether the drilling was required to be within the AONB were also not considered.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is defending the challenge, telling the court the inspector’s decision was lawful.

Tom Cosgrove KC said planning permission was for the “exploration and appraisal” of resources.

“It was the benefits of ‘exploration and assessment’, not ‘production’, which weighed greatly in favour of the development,” he said.

“The inspector was careful to weigh the harm and benefits of the exploration and appraisal phases before him.”

Mr Cosgrove said the inspector did not consider the benefits of any future production from the site, as it would require a further planning application.

“It is not known whether any future production application will be made or whether any such application would propose hydraulic fracking,” he said.

“What any future extraction project might comprise was a matter of conjecture.

READ MORE: Balcombe: Anger at decision to allow testing at oil drilling site

“So it was unnecessary, and inappropriate, for the environmental effects of that unknown development to be included.”

Mr Cosgrove said the inspector “had a clear understanding of the continuing role of hydrocarbon development as part of the transition to net zero” and correctly found the plans did not pose an “unacceptable risk” to water pollution.

The hearing before Mrs Justice Lieven is due to finish tomorrow with a decision expected at a later date.

The residents association bid comes after a similar challenge brought over a decision to allow an exploratory gas well to be dug near the village of Dunsfold in Surrey.

Campaigners from the group Protect Dunsfold brought legal action over plans for a site in the Surrey Hills, in an area of great landscape value, with a decision in their claim still to come.