GREEN campaigners have attacked the decision to issue drilling licences for possible fracking under large parts of Hampshire.

As revealed by the Daily Echo, energy firms have been handed eight licences to operate in the south of the county including north of Southampton, north and east of Winchester and East of Fareham.

Other sites include an area west of Hinton in the New Forest, north of Chilbolton and east of Hambledon.

The licence includes the option to carry out fracking – the controversial technology that involves blasting underground rock deposits with water to release trapped pockets of gas.

But environmentalists have already hit out at the scheme and criticised the Government’s decision to hand out licences.

Concerns have already been raised over groundwater contamination and toxic air surrounding sites while fracking was blamed for causing small earthquakes in Lancashire. Greenpeace condemned what it called the “disastrous” plans, saying: “The strategy would bust UK climate targets and leave us dangerously dependent on polluting gas.

“Instead, just like hundreds of business leaders, UK companies and civil society groups, we want to see carbon-free electricity by 2030, which will be cleaner, safer and cheaper over time.

“The Chancellor should stop trying to play Britain’s JR Ewing and concentrate instead on clean energy and proven growth industries.”

Ray Cobbett, co-ordinator of Hampshire Friends of the Earth, says he is “deeply concerned”

to hear licences had already been issued in the county and said a suspension of the technology should not have been lifted.

He said: “It seems to be a situation where we might wake up and find fracking has arrived in Hampshire. We need more scrutiny over the whole process.

It is definitely a Government dash for gas.

“We believe the moratorium should never have been lifted.

There are lots of problems and unknowns. There is a lot more work to do.”

He said methane gas was a fossil fuel and fracking would divert investment from renewable energy development.

Mr Cobbett warned drilling towers could be a blot on the landscape and heavy machinery could clog country lanes.

It is unlikely that all the sites would be fracked – even if drilling went ahead – as many have the potential to generate conventional gas instead.

A time frame has yet to be set for any work to take place and the names of companies involved have not been revealed.

Supporters of the scheme say thousands of jobs would be created by releasing the supplies, pumping millions of pounds in to the economy.

Hampshire County Council, as minerals and waste authority, decides planning applications for oil and gas.

Tory environment chief Sean Woodward has said he is “surprised”

to hear drilling licences had already been granted by the Department for Energy and Climate Change.

Mr Woodward, who is also leader of Fareham Borough Council, said: “We would expect to be consulted by any Government organisation if they are giving out actual licences.”

A British Geological Survey has mapped potential shale gas reserves around the country and suggested massive gas reserves worth millions of pounds could be hidden beneath the surface in Hampshire.