Letters round-up

The planning inspector’s appeal and “unreasonable” conduct on the part of RDC left us with a bill of £148,000. The latest judicial review proceedings leave a proposed bill of £145,000, plus VAT. It is beyond doubt is that, once more, RDC will be left with a bill (following assessment) of more than £100,000. This is a waste of a quarter of million on other people’s lawyers alone. RDC instructed a QC to argue its case in the High Court, at a cost of around £30,000. None of these costs include consultants, experts, in house legal and office costs.

Following this latest debacle, RDC claim its decision was reasonable and they took advice from leading counsel. With no disrespect intended, in light of the comments of Sir Jeremy Sullivan (the most eminent planning lawyer in the Court of Appeal) and Mr Justice Dove, such advice must have been an erudite essay in self-delusion; once permission to apply for judicial review had been granted it was of course open to RDC to agree to quash the decision at negligible cost. It did not.

Putting these sums into context, the value of the land is estimated at about £3m. This, in light of prevailing economic circumstances and market forces in the large supermarket sector is perhaps an over-estimate; when the legal, expert, officer, relocation and other costs are factored into the equation, the sale may well result in a nil benefit in pure economic terms.

Council taxpayers may wish to note that the legal costs of others are met from the “improvement, contingencies and reserves fund”. This is the equivalent of selling the family home in an attempt to sell the family silver. It makes no sense and must stop.

With respect to Ms Cowling, the issue in the judicial review claim was not whether the planning committee had been seen to have adequately considered all material matters, but whether it had. That it took an expensive two day lesson in the High Court to learn such a fundamental principle is risible; that the judge’s conclusions are met with such disingenuous casuistry is worrying.

In conclusion, if it is Ms Cowling’s “job to ensure that all members have sufficient evidence on which to base their decisions”, the judgment of Mr Justice Dove clearly demonstrates an abject and fundamental failure to discharge that function adequately. It is perhaps for that reason (her own) that calls are made for resignation. Resignation would not “give the appearance of running away”, it would give the reassurance of political accountability. Resignation in such circumstances is a demonstration of courage rather than cowardice.

Tom Tyson, Norton

Auditor is asked to give assurances

THERE have been references in the press for a request for an independent inquiry into the costs surrounding the Wentworth Planning development on Wentworth Street.

On July 23, 2015, I requested that RDC’s external auditor, KPMG, to give an audit assurance on the two items that have been given prominence in the press, namely have officers intentionally misled the planning committee in their report for the planning meeting on April 24, 2014, and have public funds been wasted in defending the subsequent judicial review.

I am sure that Councillor Lindsay Burr will be aware that this was reported to the overview and scrutiny committee on Thursday, July 30, 2015. Last Tuesday I met with KPMG to discuss the scope of their proposed work, the two requested items will be included within their wider assurance work.

Councillor Robert Wainwright, chairman of overview and scrutiny committee, Ryedale District Council

Fast-tracking fracking is foolish

THE Government’s Energy Secretary, Amber Rudd, and the Communities’ Secretary, Greg Clark, have said shale gas (fracking) applications will be “fast-tracked through a new, dedicated planning process”, including adding shale applications to the lists of appeals that can be ‘recovered’, where decisions are made by ministers, rather than planning inspectors.

This begs certain questions: Which ministers (and staff) have sufficient knowledge of both fracking and planning law to adequately fulfil this role?

Given that fracking could be with us for 20 to 40 years, is it more important to decide these planning applications based on the speed they can be passed, or on existing planning law, factual data, risk and impact – however long that realistically takes? Does ministerial guidance override planning law? How can any government that openly admits to be “going all out for shale” not be guilty of predetermination in any judgement? Perhaps they should consult Ryedale District Council solicitor, Mr Winship. “Local communities will remain fully involved in planning decisions” How exactly, particularly if the decision has been predetermined?

The Third Energy fracking application in Ryedale consists of seven volumes of highly technical data and will no doubt attract thousands of public responses. It took them three attempts to correctly submit the application, so it’s quite probable there will be a large number of inaccuracies and misleading, missing or incomplete data to identify and rectify. Does Ms Rudd honestly believe that any cash strapped local authority will have the manpower and expertise to safely rush that through in 16 weeks? And finally, how exactly does the government define Westminster-based localism?

Mike Potter, Pickering & District Civic Society

Ban fracking now

I WRITE in response to your article dated August 26 and titled “fracking ‘sacrifice zone’ claims rejected”.

Yet again Lorraine Allanson, propped up by John Dewer and Third Energy, try to downplay the risks associated with fFracking and continue to try to and convince the residents of Ryedale that fracking will be good for our community. They claim Yorkshire won’t become a sacrifice zone and it will bring jobs and energy security. All of these claims are completely false and are unsupported by the current evidence.

Lorraine claims that fracking in Kirby Misperton will provide additional jobs, – this is completely untrue. Third Energy’s own planning application confirms the KM8 project will not create any new skilled employment. Furthermore, when the initial exploratory well was drilled in Kirby Misperton in 2013 Third Energy hired a company based outside of Ryedale (PR Marriot) which o provided their temporary workforce, also based outside of Ryedale, so yet again the works created no additional employment or benefit to the local communities.

Furthermore, evidence from the US and Australia suggests that introducing fracking into rural areas has a negative impact on existing successful industries such as tourism and agriculture. A similar pattern would be disastrous for Ryedale. Where we have a booming tourism industry with attractions such as Flamingo Land within a mile or two of Third Energy’s site and world-beating farms’ producing amazing produce throughout Ryedale. Both of these industries employ thousands of people all year round. If fracking could potentially threaten this, than surely we shouldn’t allow this new and risky project to continue?

Lorraine claims fracking will provide us with energy security. Aagain this isn’t true. If the UK were to rely on shale gas to meet its energy demands then an estimated 20,000 wells will need to be drilled in the next 20 years. This is simply crazy and would lead to the complete industrialisation of large parts of North Yorkshire in effect creating a shale gas “sacrifice zone”. The only true path to create energy security is to invest in renewable energy combined with home efficiency improvements. Furthermore investing in renewables will create tens of thousands of new skilled, long-term jobs. A win-win situation for all (except Third Energy and co).

I have many other problems with claims made by Lorraine Allanson and also Third Energy, but instead of listing them all here I would simply suggest to the reader to spend 20 minutes online, Google fracking and read the peer-reviewed papers, read interviews from residents living near fracking wells and decide for yourself if you think fracking really is safe and suitable for Yorkshire.

I for one am convinced that fracking is detri-mental to our health and poses a significant risk to our environment and dealing with the aftermath of fracking is not a legacy I want to leave for our children and grandchildren. It’s time for the UK to follow New York, France and Germany’s lead and ban fracking once and for all.

Russell Scott, Pickering, Member of Frack Free Ryedale & Frack Free

North Yorkshire Contamination

FRACKING is a very different proposition to the existing conventional gas extraction here in Ryedale. Last week more PEDL licences were issued for Yorkshire as well as other parts of the country. This will lead to more seismic surveys which will in turn lead to more companies applying for permission to frack.

A few weeks ago, Farming Today on Radio 4 had a discussion on fracking.

Professor David Smyth said the the UK needs to look towards the USA for the problems caused by fracking. I would like to suggest to Lorraine Allinson that if she spent some time researching the environmental impacts of fracking in the USA, she would realise that Ryedale’s economy and rural way of life is under threat if fracking is given the go-ahead.

Farmers in Ryedale need to check their farm insurance. My research shows that in the UK we cannot get first party insurance to cover for possible contamination from fracking on a neighbour’s land. Therefore, as fourth generation farmers we are very concerned about the risk of ground water contamination from fracking and also the integrity of wells in production and post abandonment. It is also still unclear who has long-term liability for the plugged and abandoned wells.

Finally, at the Environment Agency Public Consultation on Third Energy’s planning application I asked a representative what would happen to our livestock if they drank contaminated borehole water, his reply, “well it wouldn’t do them a lot of good”.

So much for fracking fluid/flow back fluid being “perfectly safe” as stated by John Dewar on Look North.

Sarah Houlston, Great Barugh

Any agreement?

SO where are we now, I ask myself? The Fitzwilliam Malton Estate have the full planning for the livestock market – they only had outline planning before. May I congratulate them.

At that planning meeting, I understand that Lindsay Burr put up a good case for Ryedale District Council (RDC) to finish with Holbeck Development, or perhaps I should say for them not to continue any further.

The group leader has openly said in the past that she intends to continue, however: 1. Is she 100 per cent certain that Holbeck Development and the Estate have not come to an agreement on their own. Two businesses would be very capable of this.

2. She says that if there is no appeal, RDC can once again put the planning through for a supermarket. She may be right but how quickly can this be done? What about contempt of court? Also, is there anything to stop the Estate continuing with a second judicial review and a second tranche of money.

Many Conservatives are already embarrassed by the amount of money wasted by RDC in the name of the Conservatives. Another financial mistake could lead to some very awkward questions being asked in my belief.

Ann Hopkinson, Malton Town Council

Donations thanks

ON behalf of Yorkshire Cancer Research, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to our street collections in Pickering and Thornton-le-Dale on Saturday, July 18 and Kirkbymoorside on Wednesday, August 5.

The donations from Pickering and Thornton-le-Dale amounted to £777.01 and from Kirkbymoorside £414 making the excellent total of £1,191.01.

Thank you, also, to our collectors without whom we cannot raise the money. All this money is sent to our head office in Harrogate to fund research at the five Yorkshire universities and teaching hospitals to help people in Yorkshire avoid, survive and cope with this terrible disease.

Valerie Chadwick, Secretary, Yorkshire Cancer Research Pickering Committee

Touch of kindness

WE live in Cheshire and own a cottage in Ryedale.

I RECENTLY parked my car in the car park in Kirkbymoorside on Market Day. While getting out of the car my five-year-old granddaughter accidentally made a small dent in the car next to us. Being of an honest disposition I left my name and address on the windscreen.

One week later I received an anony-mous postcard which read as follows: “Thank you for lettingtelling us know about the car door. It’s only a small dent and cars are to use, and exuberant grandchildren to cherish. Hope you had a good time in Ryedale”.

If ever one needed one’s faith in human nature restoring, this kind action would certainly do it. for you. I hope that you can publish this letter as evidence of the kindness and warm-heartedness of the local community.

Peter Copland, Cheshire