rejection? Gas, Oil or a Claim.

So, just weeks after the terrorist attack in Paris, the UK decides to not go for energy independence. We rather continue importing from Russia and Qatar.
I need not remind you of flight MH17, or the fact that Qatar has been seen to support various causes around the Middle East that seem rather unfriendly to us. In fact, they qualify as terrorism and some groups declared war to the west.
But ok, we wouldn't want mrs Jones to wake up at night because she may hear a sound. A sound that, by the way, does not exceed that of a refrigerator. Interesting political standpoint. In particular, because the sound of a cow is most likely to be louder. Far louder.
As for safety issues due to traffic. If these truck movements are deemed unsafe, then any agricultural machine will have to be banned from our road system today. Their size. Their speed. Their noise. And in many cases old machines do not comply with our current safety and environmental standards anyway.
Nicks' assessment is correct; none of the specific issues around fracking has been seen as a no-go. The advice is an full blown approval disguised as a rejection.
As far as the euphoric reactions of protestors is concerned. This just shows their ignorance on content, their total selfishness in terms of being a responsible citizen to the national interest in terms of energy, independence and competitiveness, as well as total Nimbyism. Shame on them. Be real, non of their arguments stood up. Like anarchists they are just trying to slow the process and increase the cost of the developers. They repeatedly mention this, but this defeat for them should open their eyes. Fracking will happen in the UK, and it will happen soon.
After all, what is a few months on a scale of decades of energy independence in the UK.

Worst case Downing Street (..) will step in to give this project a status of national priority, but a straight forward appeal should do the job. In the past projects with far different 'noise' levels and / or traffic impact have been approved by this and other Councils.

Do not forget that the Government just opened up 2/3 of the UK in the new License Round. Bids are currently undergoing evaluation, but it has been indicated there was a significant interest in the licenses.
A government that gives out licences, and then subsequently does not create an environment to start of exploration and production within those areas will most likely be liable for significant damages. Applicants have bent over backwards to fill in to the requirements, setting new levels of scrutiny and detail in the environmental statement, which was approved subsequently. If a drill rig producing around 40Db is not approved, then nowhere on the planet drilling can ever continue, let alone in the UK.

Possibly some of the big players have an interest in trying to push Cuadrilla out. After all, they missed out on the largest gas field of Europe. A sizeable blunder....