A fracking company has applied for a licence to search for shale gas under Harrow.

The London Local Energy firm has applied for licences from the Department of Energy to begin fracking underneath three areas of the capital.

An exploratory well will only need to be one place, possibly in the Park Royal Industrial Estate, in Brent, from which pipes would fan out up to 20 miles looking for natural gas inside rock deep below the ground.

The man behind the application for North West London, Nick Grealy, has been a long time advocate of fracking.

Speaking to the Harrow Times, he said: “What is important to us is the fact this it local energy for London.

“People in the capital need a lot of power to keep the lights on and to do that you need to use oil and gas as well as renewables.

“You are not able to power a tower block with just solar panels. London having its own natural gas supply would help meet the city’s energy needs.

“One of the fears people have is the industrialisation of the landscape but in a built up city like London people will not really notice we are drilling.

“We are able to drill down on an industrial estate and house the operation and people will not notice any more traffic or noise than they normally would from the same estate.”

The Government believes fracking could be an important factor in boosting the UK’s energy production and reducing the need to import gas and oil from aboard.

Fracking has been a controversial source of energy in the UK, with opposing campaign groups warning of a damaging environmental impact.

The Green Party's London Assembly member Jenny Jones has raised concerns about the application.

She said: “The suggestion that London’s residents will not notice the noise and disruption of fracking trucks as it already has high levels of traffic and noise is truly insulting.

“Boris Johnson can’t just brush these off as NIMBY issues. More noise and pollution on our roads is completely unacceptable. Nor should the risks of contaminating ground water with toxic chemicals be underestimated.”

“At a time when current trends mean that we are on course for a catastrophic four degree temperature increase, our priority must be switching to renewables such as solar and wind and getting serious about energy conservation.

“Exploiting even more fossil fuels such as fracked oil or gas that can only accelerate global warming just isn’t an option.”