The government’s decision to allow fracking in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – including the Wye Valley – is short-sighted and irresponsible, according to It’s Our County, Herefordshire Council’s largest opposition party.

Yesterday’s decision – rubber stamped by the House of Commons – allows fracking beneath England’s most sensitive environmental and landscape areas, providing the surface-level works are sited outside AONBs.

John Harrington, chair of It’s Our County, said: “Allowing fracking in and around the Wye Valley AONB would be short-sighted and irresponsible. Herefordshire’s farmed and wild landscapes are precious assets, and vital to tourism which brings in over £450 million per year to the local economy."