Letters round-up

The whole area is still liable to flooding as the last few days prove.

The horrible smell as you walk around Malton and Norton indicate the sewage system is totally inadequate and not just when flooding takes place.

The constant stream of ever-increasing larger and heavier lorries passing through both towns causes severe traffic congestion and very worrying air pollution.

If the proposed fracking throughout the area takes place it will greatly add to the problems, especially on the surrounding narrow country roads and bridges.

Amenities and services such as libraries and fire services are being cut back drastically although with the growing population there is an even greater need for them, particularly when Norton has one of the highest areas of deprivation in the county.

The National Housing Federation revealed Ryedale is one of the least affordable places to buy a home in Yorkshire with average house prices £219,929 – almost 10 times the average salary of £22,173. As a result many new houses being built are bought up by speculators and not first-time buyers.

I find it hard to believe that building yet more houses, which people cannot afford, and increasing the demands on an infrastructure which is already failing to cope, is the answer to these problems.

Hilary Jenkins, Norton

Grid intelligence

IT is clear that the Green Party and local protesters against fracking don’t understand how the National Grid works.

The National Grid has to balance demand and supply at the flick of a switch. Those criticising our MP Kevin Hollinrake should in fact be praising him for his foresight in finding current facts about the safety of fracking from his visit to the USA last year.

The National Grid cannot rely on the vagaries of wind, solar or tidal to supply extra demand. The main generators of electricity are coal, nuclear, gas and hydro. Only gas and hydro can supply extra capacity at the “flick of a switch”. Coal and nuclear power stations need time to build up to full production because they use steam turbines to drive the alternators. Because Britain only has one hydro plant of any size the burden lies solely with the gas-powered generators to be turned on at the flick of a switch.

North Sea oil and gas production is struggling to supply our needs which is why we have a gas pipeline from Norway to the Yorkshire coast. I believe we import 10 per cent and rising of our gas from Norway.

After the disastrous energy policy of the coalition government headed by energy minister Ed Davy, the new Conservative Government seems to be getting more of a grip and hopefully understand the dire position that Britain’s Energy Supply is in as a result of his deluded ideas.

UKIP put forward the most sensible energy policy in their manifesto.With renewables you need to match them with a grown-up power station that can supply power when it is needed and not when it is available.

Colin Wigglesworth, Filey

Disgraceful claim

STEVEN White, in his letter of January 6, asks if Kevin Hollinrake’s visit to Pennsylvania was a “sham part of a PR war”. This is disgraceful.

I accompanied Mr Hollinrake on that trip and he spoke to various people, on all parts of the fracking spectrum, searching diligently for as much information as he could in the short time we were there and his report reflected that.

From Mr White’s letter it is apparent he only spoke to people who fitted his own agenda. His comment that he heard stories of a decimated tourist industry should have been checked before writing; the Pennsyl- vania travel and tourism economy expanded for the fourth consecutive year in 2013.

Mr Hollinrake cannot take such a narrow view on such a speciality. His trip was to gain knowledge about the subject and it was very successful in that regard. Also, he is representing everyone in the constituency and has to examine all sides.

Cllr Bob Gardiner, vice-chairman of Ryedale District Council

Fracking threat

NEIL Milbanke’s letter falsely claims there are no viable alternatives to fossil fuels and fracking to meet our energy needs. He confuses needs with the means to meet those needs. We need clean water, healthy food, clean air to breathe, warm and dry homes. Gas obtained by fracking threatens them all.

The wealth of academic studies showing evidence it can contaminate drinking water, air, soil that grows our food and pollute our air led to New York State banning fracking.

Fracking here would take up to 15 years to scale up, by which time the Sahara will be exporting solar energy to Europe at a fraction of the cost of expensive shale gas, and we could be generating 70 per cent of our energy needs with tidal power, which is 100 per cent reliable.

The only way shale gas could conceivably compete is if the government continues to block any developments in renewables and continues to starve the Environment Agency of the considerable resources required to inspect this notoriously dangerous industry.

Most household insurance does not cover damage from fracking and house prices suffer in areas where fracking takes place. By selling to the highest bidder on the European gas market, shale gas would have no effect on overall prices while inhibiting investment in green gas from waste food in anaerobic digestors.

Fugitive methane emissions push fracking into the worst pollution category with coal, worsening the global warming that trigger extreme droughts in Africa and flooding here. Renewables are a long-term fix that is actually transforming markets now as their costs tumble. And they don’t cost the earth, unlike fracking.

Ian Conlan, Malton

Flooding silence

LIKE me, readers will have been concerned by the continuing floods and angered at the inadequate funding of our flood defences.

In 2010 the Coalition government cut funding for flood protection by 20 per cent, scrapping several hundred projects. This is false economy, as the Environment Agency estimates that every £1 spent on flood prevention saves £8 in clean-up costs.

In 2014 the agency recommended investment on flood protection of £750m-£800m per year, well over half of which should be earmarked to maintain existing infrastructure.

However, the Environment Secretary has committed to an annual maintenance spend of only £171m – which gives us insight into how much this London-centric government values the north of England.

Constituents looking to our MP Kevin Hollinrake to represent our case have been let down, as he has yet to utter a single word in the House of Commons on this subject.

It has been left to his predecessor Anne McIntosh to point out that “we are falling woefully short on maintenance expenditure” and to demand that government should at least match the funding promised for new defences on the upkeep of existing systems. I call upon our Parliamentary representative to do the job for which he was elected.

Peter Williams, Malton

Land blockages

IT is good to see that Kevin Hollinrake acknowledges that “Slow the Flow” initiatives like the scheme at Pickering are useful in tackling our ever-increasing flooding problems.

If he wishes to see the idea extensively repeated throughout the north, though, I fear that he will be at odds with his land-owning friends.

Most rain has always fallen on our uplands and was previously soaked up by these boggy areas. However, over the centuries landowners have cleared and drained this land for agriculture, stock-rearing and especially grouse-shooting.

This now means that a lot of that rain is channelled straight down into our rivers. Further downstream the agricultural land that previously would have been allowed to flood is now also drained and protected from flooding.

The changed nature of the cropping cultivation on this land also means that the soil is at greater risk of being washed into the rivers.

By recklessly allowing large-scale development on the flood plains around our towns and cities, the problem is further compounded. The final ingredient in this unhappy mix is the presence of our warming climate which will inevitably lead to greater and possibly heavier bursts of rainfall.

The answer to all these problems are plain to see; we just lack a government that is willing to tackle them.

Glyn Wild, Swinton

Rental disgrace

ON January 12, MPs voted down an amendment which would have seen landlords forced to ensure their properties were fit for humans to live in. The amendment was defeated by 219 votes to 312 – a majority of 93. One of the MPs who voted no was our own Kevin Hollinrake.

Shadow housing minister Teresa Pearce called for the new rules to be added to the housing bill, rules which would require private landlords to ensure their properties were in a fit state.

The majority of landlords let property which is and remains in a decent standard. So it is even more distressing when we see reports of homes which are unfit for human habitation being let. If I purchased food from a shop and it was unsafe to eat I would not only get a refund but there is a high possibility the shopkeeper could be prosecuted.

Yet if I rent from a landlord, perhaps the only available property for me, and it was unsafe to live in then I can either put up or shut up.

In a market where demand outstrips supply, renters lack basic consumer power to bargain for better conditions.

Government ministers responded by saying the amendment “would result in unnecessary regulation and cost to landlords which would deter further investment and push up rents for tenants”.

I guess Mr Hollinrake would rather look after the interest of landlords and estate agents than those he was elected to serve, or just vote as his party whips tell him as he does on fracking issues.

Tim Prest, Malton

No apology?

NO doubt many of your correspondents will rightfully vent their spleen at Ryedale District Council’s Tory group for their egregious conduct relating to the Wentworth Street car park fiasco, not to mention the reckless waste of public money.

Councillor Linda Cowlings’ statement in this regard is notable for two reasons, one being the long-predicted but still hardly credible volte-face. The second being the glaring absence of one word… Sorry.

Such Chutzpah will not be forgotten the next time I vote.

Peter Walker, Amotherby