The first fracking to take place in this country for seven years was due to start this week after campaigners lost a last-minute legal challenge to block the operations of shale gas company Cuadrilla.

It didn't go ahead on Saturday because of bad weather but Cuadrilla is now free to frack away to its heart's content.

The last minute temporary blip came after Lancashire resident Robert Dennett won an interim injunction on Friday last week against Lancashire County Council, putting a temporary halt to the start of fracking at a well outside Blackpool.

His lawyers argued on Thursday that the council’s emergency planning was inadequate in the event of an incident at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site.

But on Friday a high court judge rejected the request for an injunction on the grounds the council had not failed in its duties regarding civil contingency planning.

According to the Guardian, Justice Supperstone also dismissed an application for a judicial review of emergency planning.

The court’s decision removes the final barrier to fracking starting again in the UK after a hiatus of seven years.

Cuadrilla said it was delighted it could start operations as planned. “We are now commencing the final operational phase to evaluate the commercial potential for a new source of indigenous natural gas in Lancashire,” said the chief executive, Francis Egan.

So what does that mean for us, I wonder.

It is well documented that there are a number of potential sites across our area that fracking firms are interested in.

And the experience of the Lancashire protesters has not proved either happy or successful.

Set this against a framework of a government that seems keen for fracking to go ahead.

Back in May, the BBC reported that the government had proposed a relaxation in the planning laws which apply to fracking.

Under the plans, preliminary drilling could be classed as permitted development – the same law that allows people to build a small porch or conservatory at their homes without having to get planning permission from the council.

The BBC said Ministers are also proposing a shale environmental regulator and a new planning brokerage service.

Opponents of fracking say it shows the government is desperate to encourage fracking.

They call the proposed relaxation of planning law an outrageous subversion of the planning process.

Energy Minister Claire Perry said: "This package of measures delivers on our manifesto promise to support shale and it will ensure exploration happens in the most environmentally responsible way while making it easier for companies and local communities to work together."

She said shale gas had the potential to lower energy prices, although opponents of the technology say there is no evidence this will happen in the UK.

Obviously, Friends of the Earth aren't happy.

Spokeswoman Rose Dickinson said: "The government's plans pervert the planning process and could make England's landscape a Wild West for whatever cowboy wants to start drilling and digging up our countryside.

"Permitted development was meant to help people build a fence or a conservatory, not drill for gas."

OK, I get it. People don't want fracking in their back yards.

But they don't want coal-fired power stations and they don't want energy from waste plants (or incinerators as they're known round here.)

And nuclear power is clean but leaves huge radioactive waste problems.

But wind power is fine. Well, I say it's fine until someone proposes building a wind farm that blocks your view of the countryside. Oh, and don't forget windfarms can have a devastating affect on bird populations and people living near to them are apparently driven to the edge of insanity by the constant low frequency hum.

What about tidal power. Seems like a good idea but won't it affect the seabed ecosystem?

Fancy a photo-voltaic farm? I do but apparently they are an eyesore and take up valuable agricultural land.

The fact is I don't have the solution. But I do know I want gas to heat my home and electricity to light it (and do all the other things electricity allows us to do.)

As that great philosopher of our age Kelly Osborne once said: "If you're going to play, you've got to pay."

Power generation is either dirty or messy and has the potential for long and short term environment impact.

Perhaps you might want to think about that next time you put the kettle on, or watch television or switch on a light.