Letters round-up

We do need our own energy sources rather than rely on the goodwill of other countries. If we do not provide our own, it would facilitate the opportunity for those countries, who did supply us, to have control of the cost and even worse, our energy supply.

I have lived through a world war as a child and know the devastating effect war has on lives and the terrible fear a person feels when “others” may gain control over our very existence.

On that basis I back the agenda to do fracking in our area. I know people have been made to be alarmed, but when you dig deep and look at the science it is clear that the UK is a very safe place to live.

I would rather have a continuation of the gas industry than camps of protesters denying us a sustainable future energy supply which is available here and the benefits it may bring for people in the area.

I am retired but I am also wise enough to know that our area does need some forms of industry, it has to be a working environment for our younger members of society to benefit.

Instead of being afraid of the actual fracking and its supposed effects on tourism, we should fear the camps of protesters that will no doubt descend on our region. These are not the few locals who object, but people who make a life out of objecting and the images that the world will see of our beautiful area will do more to ruin tourism than any gas industry ever could.

Their radical behaviour is not what we are used to in Ryedale and our way of life will be devastated as they gain control over the local groups of opponents.

We would fail our community as a whole if we encourage these outsiders to ruin our village at Kirby Misperton and our way of life.

Name and address supplied

Mystery bill payer

MAY 5 was a beautiful day so I decided to ask three of my residents from Spring Cottage Residential Home in Norton if they would like to go to Castle Howard for afternoon coffee and a wonder round. So off we went.

We all sat out in the courtyard enjoying the lovely sunny weather and the residents were chatting about times gone by and how things had altered in their many years of living in Malton. I was sat listening to them with interest and we were all enjoying our chosen coffees.

It was time to pay the bill and then go for a look around the gift shop. I told the three ladies that I would pay and be back in a minute. At that point the waitress informed us that the bill had been paid already by a gentleman that had been sat on another table. The gentleman had already left so we were unable to thank him for his generosity in person.

The ladies all said how kind it was and it had restored their faith in human nature. What a very kind gesture from a gentleman we didn’t even know. I would like to thank the gentleman for his kindness and generosity on behalf of the three ladies and myself.

Manager Joanne Turner and residents Dorothy Healeas, Marie Bradley and Grace Monkman, Spring Cottage Residential Home

Cameron turns

IT is hard to believe that three months ago, David Cameron was all for taking us out of EU if he didn’t get the reforms he was fighting for.

Suddenly, despite the meagre crumbs he has been thrown. He has become pro-European. He calls it a reformed EU at every opportunity. No rational person is fooled by this anomaly.

He is being careful not to mention immigration, when it is one of the main concerns of the electorate. Public services are seriously over burdened. School places, the NHS, housing, to name a few. I have been waiting a month for an MRI scan. It may be due to over burdening, I don’t really know. It now transpires that Turkey are to be given visas and free movement. How long before this influx filters into the UK?

Cameron, in his desperation is hinting at serious conflict if we vote to leave, how ludicrous.

There are many conflicting views on leaving or staying, which only serves to confuse the undecided even more.

We are an island nation already over crowded. Surely its time to take care of our own interests and vote to leave this bloated, corrupt federal state.

Clive Milson, Huttons Ambo

Protect future

WITH only a few days before North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) planning committee meets to make a decision about the planning application to frack and produce gas at Kirby Misperton for nine years, we learn that NYCC planning officers recommend approval.

Another gas company with licenses and extensive plans across North Yorkshire, INEOS, has begun “consultation” meetings this week. It feels as though we are under siege In the words of the Queen’s Counsel advising NYCC, “The application of, and the outcome of, the fracking process at this stage is ‘novel’ (its geology is unique and cannot be directly compared to experience elsewhere)”.

It may be possible to frack, but that doesn’t mean that it’s right to. NYCC has received 3,907 objections and 32 in support.

The impact of fracking will change lives forever, particularly in areas reliant on tourism and farming.

Fracking is a short-term solution which will leave behind leaking wells and yet another nasty legacy for future generations to find “novel solutions”.

We are not able to make more countryside and “when it’s gone, it’s gone” and with it, our future.

Caroline Davis, Hovingham

Well let’s hope

I AM extremely concerned by the news today that the planning officer at North Yorkshire County Council is recommending Third Energy’s planning application at KM8.

After meeting Tom Pickering, from Ineos, and asking about well pad density, I was shocked to hear that they plan for up to 20 well pads in a 100 square kilometre area.

That sounds like a big area, but it’s only 10x10 kilometres. And the “stand off” from residential areas is only going to be 400 metres.

If planning permission is given this week, we will see a rapid industrialisation of Ryedale. Let’s hope common sense prevails.

Monica Gripaios, Hovingham

Bad for Yorkshire

I BELIEVE fracking would be bad for Yorkshire. Bad for our environment, our health, our farmers, our animals, house owners and the tourism industry.

That’s why so many locals have objected to the KM8 planning application, why so many have taken the trouble to thoroughly research this unconventional gas industry.

A great many have attended talks both for and against, given by academics, politicians, the gas industry, councils and protest groups. People, who have never protested before, realise it could be their area next.

This is probably the most objected to application North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) has ever dealt with. Across Ryedale there is unprecedented opposition to this industry.

The application is for potential gas extraction for nine years and so we are entitled to ask what else will happen during that period.

New PEDL licences have been granted to explore fracking possibilities across Yorkshire and Lancashire. The big players in the industry like Igas,Cuadrilla and Ineos are ready to go if this application is past.

The result, an explosion of industrialisation, across our county. Not just the hundreds of well sites, but compression stations, processing and generating plants. In addition thousands of lorry movements of waste, down our narrow country lanes.

Peer reviewed studies warning of health issues and contamination come to light on a monthly basis from the USA. There is talk of our “gold plated” regulations in the UK, but nature and human error can never be regulated. There is massive long-term risk of environmental damage, well failure is a common problem as is the risk of earth tremors.

Is life in Yorkshire so awful that we have to dash for gas as central government wishes? The cumulative risks are too great. It’s not always a question of ticking the boxes of planning law but of using a bit of Yorkshire common sense.

NYCC planning committee has the people’s mandate to reject this application, let’s hope they do.

M Tanner, Nawton

Be aware of tricks

WHAT has Mr Cameron told us about the future of the UK economy?

“We will be better off in a reformed EU”. Perhaps so, but the big problem here is the word “reformed”.

That will not happen in a way which will ensure that the UK “will be better off”. It will only happen in a manner already laid down in the treaties, to which we are signatory, of Rome, Lisbon and Maastricht.

“We will have free trading access to the 500 million population of the EU”. True, but then what of the other six thousand million population of the rest of this planet?

While we are members of the EU, we are allowed to trade with non-EU countries only with the permission of and regulated by the EU. Also for large trade deals we are required to offer the other 27 EU states “a-part-in-the-deal”. Mr Abe, of Japan, Mr Obama, of the USA, a quintet of grandees from the International Monetary Fund, Mrs Lagarde of the IMF and others have all said that Brexit will be bad for our economy. Read their words carefully and you will see that the same words, constructions and phrases used by Mr Cameron when he opened his side of the debate.

Now Mark Carney of the Bank of England has offered a second talk using the same hymn sheet, but did slip in a quiet note to say that the Bank of England followed government policy.

You must forgive me for thinking that these were invitations to read the same script.

Financial advisers offer this caveat “If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is”. Plagiarised this could read “If a caution seems too bad to be true, it probably is”.

This confidence trick is wearing very thin indeed.

D Loxley, Hartoft

HS2 steel origin

IT didn’t take long for the “Remainians” to link the bad news that there are 21,000 more people out of work now than six months ago to “uncertainties over the referendum” and “the possible consequences of Brexit”. This is another example of “Project Fear”.

There I was naively thinking it had something to do with the closure of several steel works, coal mines etc around the country during the winter and subsequent “collateral damage” to shops and other businesses close by due to lack of trade from those unlucky enough to have had their jobs taken from them by EU regulations.

Examples of where those jobs could have been saved by Brexit include – reduced energy costs to industry (the EU Energy Directive adds about 40 per cent to bills), more British orders to steel plants (EU procurement regulations mean foreign steel is more likely to be used in any given project), state aid is illegal (EU rules again) and the dumping of cheap Chinese steel which we can do nothing about while our hands are tied by EU red tape. Question: where is the steel for the new rails for HS2 coming from? I am not saying all the jobs could have been saved by Brexit, but the chances are that a good number of them would have been.

The energy company Npower is owned by a German company so being in the EU didn’t save the 2,400 jobs which were announced in March would be cut from their UK workforce.

Eileen Barker, Scrayingham

Gas drilling needs to be done correctly

I REFER to Mr Field’s letter ‘A democratic issue’ (Gazette & Herald, May 11).

The decision to move forward with shale gas exploration in the UK was made in Parliament in January 2015, and passed through the house by a majority of more than 250 votes. My position before and after the General Election has been consistent and clear at the many public and private meetings I have organised and attended, in leaflets and in extensive correspondence.

I do believe that the potential benefits of exploration outweigh the disadvantages, but will continue to review the evidence.

Since my election in May 2015 I have been working tirelessly to make sure that, if fracking does go ahead, it is properly monitored and regulated.

As many readers will know, I visited Pennsylvania, at my own expense, to develop a clearer understanding of the industry and its effects on local communities.

I have also recently set up an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Shale Gas Regulation and Planning.

The work for the APPG will include the supervision of regulations and the formulation of planning guidelines to protect the countryside in the event of a full-scale shale gas development programme.

We will cover concerns such as traffic plans, minimum separation distances of well sites from schools, town and villages, and impacts on other important parts of our economy.

The group will also analyse the results of the publicly available independent environmental monitoring to make sure that a move from coal to gas-fired power generation does result in the promised reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

We will also work to make sure that community financial benefits will go to those most directly affected and that any wells that have reached the end of their life are safely decommissioned.

I will be among the first to call for a pause in development if it is clear that environmental impact breaches acceptable limits or that activity is incompatible with the beauty and tranquility of our countryside.

Readers can access my report and the work of our APPG on my website at kevinhollinrake.org.uk/fracking.

Kevin Hollinrake, MP Thirsk & Malton Constituency