The drilling site is just outside the World Heritage boundary

Australian firm Roc Oil was granted permission last year to explore for oil and gas in a field near Hadrian's Wall.

The site of exploratory work and drilling is just outside of the boundary of the Hadrian's Wall World Heritage site, north of Hexham in Northumberland.

Now Roc Oil says it wants to close a road - the C223 - so it can begin constructing an entrance to the field, before it begins drilling.

People who live near the site are opposed the idea, saying it would be detrimental to Hadrian's Wall and cause traffic problems.

'Tremendous' noise

Resident Ian Crawford, who has objected to the proposal, said: "It is in the wrong site. If it was moved 50 yards west, I think a lot of the local concerns would be addressed.

"It is primarily the noise and the traffic that are the two main points.

"For example, all the water has to be brought in by tanker, and by definition, has to be taken away by tankers.

"If they moved the site to the other side of the A68, the fully-laden tankers and lorries would turn left off the road.

"Secondly, the actual contours of the area would mean we would get a tremendous amount of battering from the noise. It was estimated it would be over 100 decibels at the point of drilling."

Strict conditions

The company was given permission to erect a drilling tower, over 100 ft high, just a few miles from Hadrian's Wall, for their exploratory work.

Gordon Halliday, assistant environment manager for Northumberland County Council, said a lot of conditions had been imposed.

He said: "At this stage all the company is proposing is an exploration stage. It is a fairly limited operation.

"This rig is not allowed to be site in a vertical position for more than 10 weeks.

"We fully consulted with English Heritage who had no objections in relation to the effect on Hadrian's Wall.

"It is a very beautiful, sensitive area, but given the strong government presumption in favour of this development, we did not feel it was possible to object on landscape grounds.

"We have imposed very strict conditions in terms of noise, road modifications and we've imposed conditions to ensure road safety."