Roseacre Wood, in the parish of Treales, Roseacre and Wharles, in the Fylde, Lancashire, is a proposed temporary shale gas exploration site.   Cuadrilla submitted a planning application to drill, hydraulically fracture and test the flow of natural gas from up to four horizontal wells to Lancashire County Council in 2014.  Permission was denied in 2015 and Cuadrilla appealed this decision and the matter was subsequently heard at a public inquiry in early 2016.

On 6 October 2016, the Secretary of State confirmed that he had decided to give Cuadrilla and other parties the opportunity to provide any further evidence on highway safety and allow parties to make any representations at a new inquiry on that topic before reaching a final decision on the appeal.  The Secretary of State said that subject to being satisfied that the highway safety issues identified by in the first inquiry can be satisfactorily addressed, he is minded to allow the appeal and grant planning permission subject to conditions.  Subsequently Inspector Melvyn Middleton was  appointed to hear the evidence on highways safety at a reopened planning inquiry which was held in Blackpool from April to May 2018.

Further information about the inquiry can be found Inquiry & Consultation tab below.

On 12 February 2019, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, James Brokenshire, refused planning permission for the Roseacre Wood application. In March 2019, Cuadrilla announced it would not appeal against the decision to refuse planning permission for a new site at Roseacre Wood.

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