Fracking decision due on Little Plumpton in Lancashire

Councillors are discussing whether to approve an application for fracking at a second site in Lancashire.

Energy firm Cuadrilla wants to extract shale gas at two sites near Blackpool.

On Thursday the county council rejected an application to frack at Roseacre Wood due to the impact on rural roads.

Councillors began considering the Little Plumpton bid on Tuesday, but failed to make a decision. Council planners have recommended it be approved.

On Wednesday, following legal discussion held in private, the committee's deputy chairman, councillor Kevin Ellard (Labour), put forward a motion to reject the plan on the grounds it did not meet planning guidelines.

The motion was rejected and a senior legal adviser warned any attempt to block fracking at Little Plumpton on environmental grounds would be "unreasonable" and costly.

Councillors then deferred the decision to take further legal advice.

Seventy people - for and against fracking - have spoken during the council meetings while protests have been held outside Lancashire County Council's County Hall in Preston.

Approving the application would enable fracking following drilling at up to four exploration wells, but a separate application would be required if Cuadrilla wished to progress to commercial fracking.

Fracking - or hydraulic fracturing - was suspended in the UK in 2011 following earth tremors in Blackpool where Cuadrilla previously drilled.

The process is a technique in which water and chemicals are pumped into shale rock at high pressure to extract gas.

A meeting of the Development Control Committee began discussing the matter at 10:00 BST.