UK shale gas explorer Cuadrilla Resources has been denied planning permission for hydraulic fracturing operations at a second site in northern England.

The UK Secretary of State refused Cuadrilla’s application for fracking at Roseacre Wood, near Blackpool. The site is located nearby the Preston New Road site, where Cuadrilla has been involved in exploratory fracking.

Cuadrilla proposed to drill and frack four wells at Roseacre Wood. However, on Tuesday, the local government in Lancashire, denied Cuadrilla’s latest proposal on highway safety grounds.

“The proposed development would have a serious and very significant adverse impact on the safety of people using the public highway,” the document said.

“It is not possible to conclude that the demonstrable harm associated with that issue would be eliminated or reduced to an acceptable level.

“The economic impacts on local business, and the impacts on community recreation and amenity carry moderate weight against the proposal,” it said.

The long-awaited decision followed two public inquiries and refusals at every level of local government in Lancashire.

While the news was met with enthusiasm by local communities, a spokesperson for Cuadrilla said: “We are naturally disappointed about the decision on Roseacre Wood and will examine the details in full before reaching a position.

“However, we continue to be focused on the shale gas exploration site in Preston New Road, where we have recently released very encouraging flow test results from the UK’s first horizontal shale gas well,” it said.

The refusal comes after Cuadrilla confirmed last week the presence of a “rich reservoir of recoverable high-quality natural gas” at Preston New Road in Lancashire.

After hydraulic fracturing and flow testing, the company said Bowland shale gas flowed back from the shale at a peak rate of over 200,000 cubic feet per day and a stable rate of some 100,000 cubic feet per day.

Cuadrilla also called for a review of fracking seismic regulations, claiming the current “conservative” 0.5 magnitude limit has “severely constrained” its work at Preston New Road.

The Oil& Gas Authority, however, said: “There are no plans to review the limit under the traffic light system.”

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Cuadrilla denied a second fracking permit