THE firm behind plans to launch the UK's first fracking operation since the Government lifted its ban on the controversial gas production method has fractured rock in the same area twice before, it has emerged.

Third Energy said it used the well-stimulation technique - in which finger-width cracks are created by a pressurised mixture of water, sand and chemicals - on a smaller scale in 1987 at Kirby Misperton, where it hopes to generate sufficient gas to power 42,000 homes.

Its operations director Shaun Zablocki said there had been no adverse impact from either operation, which had taken place three years after the well had been drilled.

He said the firm had also been given permission to hydraulically fracture near Malton in the 1980s and in 2013 and the main difference between its previous fracking work and its proposal being considered by North Yorkshire County Council were that bigger pumps would be used to work at a greater depth.

Mr Zablocki said: "This has been done before, but now it is at a higher volume and a higher pressure.

"In 2013 we went through consultations and held public meetings and nobody was concerned about it at all.

"We weren't hiding anything or giving less information, it's just since this media campaign has ramped up."

He added the firm was certain fracking would not harm the environment, that its operation would be rigorously regulated and the only unknown aspect of the scheme was if it would yield commercial quantities of gas.

A spokesman for campaign group Frack Free Ryedale said Third Energy's claims over fracking 28 years ago were misleading as the term referred to well stimulation using high pressure.

He said low pressure well stimulation had been used to extend wells productive life since the 1940s and would involve very small volumes of water, no chemicals, and would be done at very low pressure in a vertical well only.

He added the Government had confirmed the only previous site in the UK where high pressure hydraulic fracturing had taken place was in Lancashire, which triggered a low pressure tremor after the water mixture caused a fault to slip.

He said: "While a few of their wells may have undergone some low pressure well stimulation to extend their life, this process is very different to the high pressure, high volume hydraulic fracturing that they plan to use at Kirby Misperton.

"To compare old fashioned low pressure well stimulation to fracking is like comparing a rubbish bin with a landfill site, or riding a bike to driving a tank."