CAMPAIGNERS slammed as “alarming” today plans by new Prime Minister Liz Truss to break another Tory Party manifesto commitment and lift the nationwide ban on fracking.

Councillors across Gloucestershire said the controversial practice, which can cause earthquakes, is “not welcome” in the Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean.  

Six deep boreholes were drilled in and around the famous beauty spots between 1974 and 1990 to investigate promising rock structures that might contain energy-producing hydrocarbons.

Hydraulic fracking would see the rocks targeted by a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals in order to release the gas inside.

Amid fears about spiralling energy bills, Ms Truss announced earlier this month that she would “end [England’s] moratorium on extracting our huge reserves of shale,” with the first drilling licences expected this week.

But Gloucestershire County councillor Paul Hodgkinson said that the remarks from Boris Johnson’s successor are a “concern.”

He said: “I’m quite alarmed to see the new PM talking about and promoting fracking now,” the Lib Dem representative for Bourton-on-the-Water and Northleach said.

“The Cotswolds is an area of outstanding natural beauty and so there will be some protections, but if the government decides to railroad this through, what will we be left with?

“Will it be a free-for-all for companies to just apply for licences? The risks of fracking have not gone away — we should be promoting renewable energy even more so.”

A ban on the practice was announced in November 2019 after a report by the Oil and Gas Authority found it was not possible to accurately predict the probability or magnitude of earthquakes linked to the violent process.

The Tory Party’s manifesto for the general election held the following month promised “not to support fracking unless the science shows categorically that it can be done safely.”

But the ban is set to end despite a long-awaited report by the British Geological Survey admitting that forecasting fracking-induced tremors “remains a scientific challenge.”

The study, held up by the Queen’s death, confirms that there are still “significant existing knowledge gaps,” according to the Guardian newspaper.

Campaigners in Gloucestershire warn that the county has also been subjected to many oil and gas exploration licences since World War II.

The government has also breached its manifesto commitments not to raise National Insurance contributions or suspend the pensions triple lock in recent years.