Letters round-up

Neither proposal is reassuring for local people and will lead to a reduced and potentially delayed service and, as we are all aware, in the event of a major incident time is of the essence for the emergency services to save lives.

Malton and Norton, in fact the whole of Ryedale as the local crew cover a vast area, have grown substantially in the past five years and more development is planned.

Add to this other risks that the area remains vulnerable to such as flooding. In 2012 the dedication and determination of the fire service prevented many houses in Norton from sewer flooding by mounting a huge pumping operation that ran 24/7. Under the NYFRS proposals these properties would be left to flood as the service will simply not have the capacity to help.

Local fire crews have concerns about slower response times should these changes go ahead and also a reduction in the service and safety that they will be able to offer to the public from a two manned tactical response vehicle. Waiting for retained firemen to join a “mixed crew” vehicle could lead to delays of between five and nine minutes before a fire engine can be dispatched.

In order to deal with a road traffic accident quickly and safely they need four officers, especially as because of rural nature of Ryedale it can take the ambulance service some time to get to an incident and firefighters have to administer emergency first aid. Under the proposals being put forward by NYFRS these incidents will be dealt with by a two-man crew.

And how safe is it – both for the public they serve and for the fire crew themselves – to expect two staff to enter a house on fire, but this is the reality of what is being proposed for some incidents.

I would urge people in Ryedale to read the proposals being set out by North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and respond to their consultation at northyorksfire.gov.uk/news-events/public-consultations/fcr_jul15/.

We need to support our hard working fires service crews who want to continue to offer the excellent service they currently provide to people across Ryedale and North Yorkshire to ensure everyone’s safety. These cuts will put the safety of the public at risk – I urge you to support our fireman to resist them and please sign their petition at no2firecuts.com.

After all, you never know when you might need them.

Councillor Di Keal, district councillor and town councillor for Norton West

Impossible to be discrete now

IN the Gazette & Herald, John Dewar wrote “We have been operating in Ryedale for over two decades, safely and discretely, and we look forward to continuing our operations in the same way”.

What he forgot to mention was this drilling was for conventional gas and only one well. I don’t think the proposed industrialisation of Ryedale and the North York Moors will be so discrete not to mention the noise, pollution and ruination of our stunning countryside and the upset to the lives of people living there.

It all; starts with just one well.

June Smith, Helmsley

We need to work with

Third Energy I AM writing in response to the continued flow of letters against myself and FORGE (Friends of Ryedale Gas Exploration).

Firstly, I would like to apologise to the general public who must view these weekly letters as rather tedious and boring. I would also like to assure all the people who have been concerned about my welfare that I am fine.

This sustained attack on my integrity means nothing as I am only interested in the truth. That was the reason I founded FORGE. I am a practical, down to earth Yorkshire woman with Scottish heritage and therefore tough and not at all battle weary. I am not easily influenced by alarmist scaremongering stories relating to the USA when the UK has infinitely higher standards of working practises for the gas exploration industry.

I am stoically in full support of “team UK” and especially “team Ryedale” which means because we are sat on the Bowland Shale, we need to use this to our region’s advantage. Without doubt we will require a secure supply of gas for decades until renewables can fully replace fossil fuels.

In the meantime, let Ryedale enjoy some inward business investment and better employment prospects for the future. Why not let it be our gas, our fortune and our future? It does not have to ruin our lives.

The best way to ensure that that doesn’t happen is to work with Third Energy and not make them our third enemy the first two being fear and inertia.

Lorraine Allanson, Allerston

Doomsday scene won't happen

I AM writing in support of the FORGE (Friends of Ryedale Gas Exploration) group.

In the past I have been reluctant in writing letters as it only encourages the tit-for-tat exchanges of even more Doomsday laden scenarios from Frack Free Ryedale. My advice to the adventurer Bear Grylls is keep away from Ryedale its countryside is full of extremes and danger.

I don’t accept the Doomsday scenario from Frack Free Ryedale. The statutory and regulatory bodies that govern shale gas extraction will not let it happen. It is perfectly sensible to me that gas produced in this country is better than gas bought in from abroad and we should use what we have.

In America it is said that gas extraction has completely transformed the economy. I have read dozens of reports that endorse the view that shale gas can be safely extracted with appropriate controls and that it is needed to see us through the next 20 to 30 years. Are the authors of these reports from government advisors, consultants, environmentalists all wrong and only FFR is right?

Look around your home, workplace or society in general and look at the amazing things that operate in complete safety (cars, phones, planes, scanners the list is endless). All of these things are the product of scientists and engineers working on our behalf. Why should shale gas extraction be any different to this? Let’s put our faith and trust in Third Energy and give them a chance to show us what they can achieve.

David Pasley, Pickering

Misleading use of the facts

LORRAINE Allanson and John Dewar are keen to use facts to support fracking for shale gas. I do not dispute that conventional gas has been safely and discreetly produced in Ryedale for some 20 years, but it is misleading to therefore imply that this will be the case in the future for the quite different process of fracking.

Let us consider – it is a fact that if the highly secret trade deal with the USA (TTIP) is implemented there will be huge pressure to “standardise” rules and regulations between the USA and Europe to assist trade. This could leave the door open for us to be forced to adopt the lower fracking standards currently operating in the USA.

It is also a fact that in order to extract the maximum gas resource the fracking process will involve many more wellheads than at present and many more HGV movements along our narrow country lanes. In other words an increased industrialisation of Ryedale.

It is a fact that world scientists, the UN and now the Vatican all agree that Climate Change is a real and urgent threat to our future way of life on the planet. This change is being mainly driven by our extensive use of fossil fuels. Shale gas is still a fossil fuel and we should not therefore be using it. If, as in the USA, it involves the release of methane (which a more potent greenhouse gas) then there is even less reason to use it. Even the head of Shell has now said that the future of energy generation will inevitably be solar, so let us tell the government to stop propping up the energy of the past, oil and gas, and properly support the energy of the future, renewables such as sun, wind and tide.

Glyn Wild, Swinton

Dipped headlights please, drivers

NOW that autumn is here, with reduced light conditions including misty/foggy starts to the day, may I as a school bus driver make an urgent appeal, not for money but to ask other road users to switch on their dipped headlights in these situations rather than just parking lights.

Although you may not see to drive any better this enables oncoming vehicles to see your vehicle sooner which is not the case with side/parking lights of low wattage alone. Four words may help you to remember: “See and be seen”.

With visibility down to 80 to 100 yards recently, I met 17 vehicles travelling between Malton and Helmsley in just 45 minutes with either no lights showing or just parking lights on.

We all need to be extra vigilant at this time of year and hopefully complete our journeys safely.

John Prest, Coneysthorpe

Cuts affect study course options

THIS is the time of year when many adults are searching for suitable study courses to use for career furtherance or stimulation.

Cutbacks and changes to which authorities may sponsor what courses (made by several governments) have led to a dearth of such courses in Ryedale and even the large towns to our South and East.

Provision for adults at night classes has been altered to costly daytime provision where all ages 16+ must attend parts of courses on different days. Thus it is impossible for would-be students to learn by night while working by day. The added travel implications mean that Only distance learning, itself costly but excellent in terms of resource and tuition, is a viable option.

Thanks to our excellent library service I am forwarding some of these prospectuses to each Ryedale Library. The 2015/6 programmes ‘A’ and ‘AS’ are accepting students. One “Open Trust” (not for profit) organisation offers fast track tuition until the end of October for the 2016 examinations.

Anyone looking for background advice on the English Set Books – World War One AS and Love Through the Ages is welcome to contact me for advice on a free but limited support network for studying the books involved.

There is also the developing Library World War Commemoration project.

John Dean, Beadlam

Library's vital internet role

YOUR readers will have seen in a recent feature that the North Yorkshire library service is engaged in local consultations to see if the use of volunteers can help sustain the current level of library opening hours in the present climate of cuts in public spending.

With the wide-spread use of tablets and other reading devices, many people do not use the library in the ways that they used to and may think that they need not provide the same community service as they once did.

At the Ryedale Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), our advisers see the situation from a different perspective. For many isolated, disabled, poor and disadvantaged people, the services of the library are very important as they provide often the only way that some citizens can freely access internet services. For them, the library service provides a route to accurate information and guidance, but most importantly access to a computer in order to fill in online official forms in relation to benefits, disability and other special needs. Often filling these forms has to be done online. Professional library staff can often provide practical help in using the internet as well, especially helpful to the elderly.

At the CAB we find the library service unfailingly helpful and your local readers in Pickering will know the library enables Ryedale CAB to offer local citizens direct access to our advisers on a weekly basis.

Dr Allen Warren, volunteer research and campaigns co-ordinator, Ryedale Citizens Advice Bureau

Estate makes things happen

IN one of Linda Cowling’s numerous letters about the superstore which she is personally determined to force on Malton, she writes (July 22): “Who would put up this level of opposition? Only anyone who has enough money to stop anything happening in Ryedale”. This is a wholly unprofessional attack on Fitzwilliam Malton Estate by the leader of Ryedale District Council.

It is also totally inaccurate. As a director of Malton Community Interest Company (CIC), I would like to set the record straight. Far from “stopping anything happening”, the Estate actively “makes” things happen in Malton and Norton. All the details are in the public domain.

The Estate’s activities include the provision of two hours’ free parking in Malton Market Place and on the livestock market site. They have rejuvenated the Talbot Hotel and the Old Town Hall and are responsible for the annual food festivals and monthly food markets.

Food producers and breweries are being attracted to Malton because of the availability of premises such as the Talbot Yard, restored by the Estate. Through the CIC they make grants to numerous organisations, including the book, Cajun, cycling and folk music festivals, the Milton Rooms, Malton Museum, the town Christmas lights, Ryedale Foodbank, family days, bands, choirs, playschools, street angels and many others.

It is unacceptable that the leader of the district council sees fit to state such a blatant untruth.

It is crucial that the district council should start to work creatively with the town councils and major investors such as the Estate for the future good of Malton and Norton, building bridges and healing relationships where necessary.

Emma Brooksbank, director, Malton Community Interest Company, Menethorpe

Brian's tangle with a hedge

IN 1965 my parents and I were returning from a day trip to Scarborough one evening to our home in Malton.

I was about 13 and my father, Des Reed (former Malton Gazette “Town Talk” Columnist) noticed car lights coming from behind the opposite hedgerow by the side of the A64 near West Heslerton.
There were few cars on the roads in those days, so we stopped and investigated.

To our surprise we found Brian Close trying to get his brand new white Ford Corsair out of the field to which he had ended up having come round the bend too fast and skidded in the wet roads and straight through the hedgerow.

He had a slight cut to his head, so we invited him to come back to Malton with us. My father ran Malton Motors Garages in York Road in those days, so while we left Brian at Malton Cottage Hospital for a check up, Dad organised the retrieval of his car from Heslerton. Meanwhile Dad also phoned Brian’s wife and told her he was okay but had some “car trouble”.

Later that evening Brian joined us for a late supper, after which Dad drove him home to Leeds.
Brian never forgot my parents' kindness, especially that Dad never told Brian’s wife that night that he had been in a car crash which would have worried her unnecessarily. He kept in touch with my father for many years and often called by to see us in York Road when he passed.

Shortly after the accident he called by and gave me his Scarborough Cricket Festival official photograph which he had everyone sign for me, which included all the cricket greats. I believe 1965 was the when an England XI played a World XI for the first time. I still have it.

Brian Close was a kind, gentle man, a very courageous cricketer and a great Yorkshireman.
It was a privilege to have known him.

Ian Reed, York