WHEN Kevin Hollinrake was elected as MP for Thirsk and Malton he said: “We live in one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

“Locally, here in North Yorkshire we have strong, tight-knit communities.

“We must preserve what we have at all costs.

“I am delighted to have the chance to support and campaign on behalf of local people, community groups, businesses and farmers.”

Note he stressed preserving the countryside and supporting the tight-knit communities.

And yet since then he has chosen to support his own government line on fracking for natural gas and not the majority of people in his area that are opposed to this destructive process.

Apart from the associated health risks, fracking is an industrial process and on the large scale that is proposed will bring huge disruption to our countryside and communities.

In the House of Commons only last week, in relation to the developments of the new potash mine and the drilling of shale gas wells in the area, he asked to meet with the Secretary of State, the Department for Transport, and the Treasury to discuss infrastructure upgrades because “much of the associated traffic will travel down a single lane of the A64”.

This surely acknowledges that fracking in North Yorkshire would be an industrial process, that would involve transporting large amounts of goods and materials and it would inevitably have an effect on communities and businesses such as tourism.

Kevin Hollinrake has been to the USA and seen this industrial process in action.

He has seen the problems and yet he hides behind the mantra “it’s fine because we have much better regulations here”.

I am sorry but that is not good enough and does not reflect his promise to “support and campaign on behalf of local people”.

Glyn Wild, Highfield Terrace, Swinton, Malton

Decembeard plea

WE’RE calling on your readers to help us to harness the power of the beard to take on bowel cancer this Christmas. If you’re willing to go grizzly throughout December, dye or decorate your existing face fur or hold a ‘beardy’ event in the office or local area over the festive period, then please join our hairy band of brothers taking on bowel cancer beard by beard.

Beating Bowel Cancer’s Decembeard campaign asks men to grow or decorate their beard to raise funds for the charity.

This will help us to support bowel cancer patients and to raise awareness of the disease, its symptoms and the need for early diagnosis.

It’s is a fun, festive campaign in aid of a serious cause.

Bowel cancer is the UK’s second biggest cancer killer. Each year in the UK, more than 40,000 people are diagnosed with the disease – and 16,000 each year die from it.

But it doesn’t have to be that way because 90% of those diagnosed at an early stage can be successfully treated.

Over the last five years thousands of you have supported the campaign and we are so grateful to you.

The awareness it has raised has undoubtedly saved lives and the funds raised for the charity have enabled us to provide support services to a great many bowel cancer patients and their families.

But thousands more people are diagnosed each year, so the charity is once again asking local men to become a Decembeard champion to help us to continue to take on bowel cancer.

Please sign up today at Decembeard.org or check it out at on twitter @decembeard_uk – and prepare to ditch your razor over the festive season.

Charlotte Dawson, head nurse, Beating Bowel Cancer’s Helpline