THIRD Energy, the company who intend to "frack" a gas well at Kirby Misperton, have submitted their 'hydraulic fracture plan' to the Environment Agency - the final stage of the process before the operation can commence.

The plan, which is publically available on the Environment Agency's 'citizen space' website, is described by the company's director of operations John Dewar as the "final step of a long process."

He said: "It's taken us a couple of years to get to this point; we've had a lot of conditions to discharge for the council and for the EA."

He said that the plan is specifically aimed at "preventing what happened at Preese Hall in Lancashire, with Cuadrilla in 2011, from happening again."

That was a seismic event which measured 2.3 on the Richter scale - a magnitude that may have been felt by some people.

The hydraulic frac plan submitted by Third Energy details a 'traffic light system' of fracking as well as seismographic monitoring.

For more, see the Gazette & Herald on Wednesday.