Letters round-up

During the week before Christmas I skidded on the rotting slime coating the footpath at the junction of Newbiggin and Mount Crescent and again at the corner of Middlecave Road.

Between Christmas and New Year I slipped on more rotting slime covering the pavement on Castle Howard Road and then I actually fell over on the ice at the junction with Copperfield Close and Pasture Lane.

I also saw an elderly lady slip on the ice on the footpath in Middlecave Road.

My daughter lives in Germany and, on a visit home this Christmas, she remarked how dirty the pavements are.

We want our children to walk to school and not be driven by their parents but nothing is done to make the pavements clean and safe.

The footpath to Broughton is crumbling and covered in mud at one point. The footpath out of town on the Castle Howard Road was resurfaced some time ago but the neglected and overgrown hedges alongside the path make losing an eye or tearing one’s jacket highly probable.

Whoever is responsible for pavement maintenance should do their job and please don’t tell me there’s no money.

The pavements must be cleaned urgently before an elderly person falls over and fractures a hip.

Residents of Malton, my advice is don’t walk anywhere, go in your car because the pavements are just too dirty and slippery and downright unsafe to use and those responsible for their upkeep don’t seem to care.

Mrs H Slack, Malton

Fundraising plea

Nobody thinks cancer will happen to their child. Until it does.

When cancer strikes it affects more than just a young person’s health. A cancer diagnosis shatters families emotionally and physically.

CLIC Sargent is the UK’s leading support charity for children and young people with cancer and their families. Our social workers, nurses and other frontline staff work tirelessly to limit the damage cancer causes to young lives beyond their health.

Last year our teams in Yorkshire and Humber supported 565 children and young people and awarded £99,806 in financial grants. Our Cancer Costs research has shown that on average families with a child going through active treatment spend an extra £600 a month. This isn’t right and it isn’t fair.

CLIC Sargent is now in the running to win a charity partnership with the supermarket Morrisons, worth up to £7 million. If we win, we’ll be able to double the amount of financial grants we give to families in need, increase specialist nursing support for young patients, and transform our services.

This January we urge Morrisons employees to join team CLIC Sargent in our fight for young lives against cancer by voting for us to become their new charity partner. Visit www.clicsargent.org.uk/morrisons for details. To find out more about fundraising for CLIC Sargent please phone 07771 968129 or email gemma.cross@clicsargent.org.uk.

Gemma Cross, CLIC Sargent fundraising manager, Yorkshire and Humber

Questions for MP

Throughout 2016 I was increasingly at a loss to understand how Kevin Hollinrake defended the indefensible. As evidence poured in from all sides of the dangers inherent in fracking, he continued to give it his support.

As chairman of a parliamentary group, he always seems anxious to emphasise the benefits to constituents, suggesting that those inconvenienced by the industry should receive compensation from the Shale Wealth Fund. Where is the cost benefit analysis? He is strong, as is the industry, on the benefits, but seems reluctant to discuss the costs.

Why has energy security become an issue of such great importance? We have been dependent on coal imports for our energy needs for decades, most of it from Russia. We have a government that has just sold off the majority of its gas pipe line network.

The EPA now says that at every stage of production damage occurs. He continually falls back to the last line of defence that our “gold standard” regulations will protect us.

However, in early December, no less a person than Jim Ratcliffe (INEOS) stated “America is number one in the world in terms of its regulatory bodies”. But Americans knew this because they had also been told that their own “gold standard” regulations would protect them.

Where do you go from here?

Peter Allen, Cawton

Time for action

I AM a local resident, a supporter and member of Frack Free Ryedale. I applaud all you have done. But the time has come for direct action, or lorries will roll, fracking will commence and all will be lost.

Nobody on site advocates criminality or is encouraging antisocial behaviour. Please, please, please bring your knowledge and gravitas to bear alongside others who gather from near and far at the camp.

Whether you approve or not, it exists and it would now be wrong not to acknowledge that sad truth and work with it, to influence it.

I passionately agreed that the battle for local hearts and minds is key, and without your support this battle will be harder. This is not the time to be divided.

The simple choice, a short-term camp or long-term fracking, which will leave the worst legacy for Ryedale, and the UK?

D Chapman, Kirkbymoorside