AN open letter to MP Kevin Hollinrake. Thank Heaven the embarrassing surrender to Eurocrats was defeated last week. Unless a true exit from EU encroachment into our self-government were to occur, many in Ryedale would feel utterly betrayed.

I am not an ignoramus or anti-Europe, just anti-submergence in the openly growing EU mega-state and have read both sides’ words carefully in many newspapers. I feel that the majority views of northerners are being disdainfully over-ridden by a Westminster plutocracy, unhappily including you (voting for whom I now bitterly regret).

I have never yet found a decent answer as to why we would be better off sacrificing so much sovereignty to other countries with different interests; all I read are economic scare tactics and insults.

I suspect Mrs May and some others in Cabinet are swayed by civil servants who oppose overturning comfortable procedures, fearing the mighty hard work a true Brexit entails.

It is extraordinary for you to believe that sacrificing our self-government to placate powerful unelected EU officials is an honourable choice, perhaps believing we are too weak and pathetic to flourish economically (as do most other countries under world trading rules).

What about the Commonwealth excluded by the EU? I know what you think, sir, having read your missives, but I want you to know what your constituents think - remember a majority of us in Ryedale voted to leave and actually believed the assurances of the Conservative Party (in the 2010 and 2015 manifestos) that the referendum was meaningful and that leave meant leave.

It’s no good your saying as you did in your pre-Christmas “piece” that “most” people who wrote to you wanted the sell-out you endorsed (no matter what language it’s wrapped up in). I ask that you honour Conservative Party promises and facilitate a true Brexit.

Josephine Evans, Ampleforth

Fracking response

LORRAINE Allanson says that a 500m residential buffer between fracking drill sites and houses will make a UK gas industry virtually non-existent. Presumably this is because, if people’s homes are in the way, this might make it difficult to establish the grid of drill pads, each two hectares in size, at a density of 10 every 38 square miles (ie spaced out at one and a half to two miles in very direction – at least 50 in the Vale of Pickering alone), as allowed in the draft County Plan (paras 5.134 and 5.137).

However, the remedy is in the hands of the industry. If houses are in their way, they can buy them at full market value, which is only fair as no one has a right of compensation for loss of value to their home if a fracking drill pad like the one at KM8 is built next to their garden fence. As regards gas supply, a government report (Gas Security of Supply DBEIS October 2017) makes it clear that the UK will have security of gas supply without fracking at least until 2035, and that the amount of gas required will be no more then than now, as our energy requirements are increasingly met through renewables.

Could readers visit crowdjustice.com/case/northyorkshirefracking/ and contribute to the legal costs of protecting the district?

Cllr Paul Andrews, Ryedale District Council

Donation thanks

I WOULD like to express my appreciation and gratitude to the many residents of Ryedale who donated food and finance to enable us to provide food to 587 individuals over the Christmas period. We have also seen an increase in people coming to our centres in the first two weeks of January compared to last year.

Without the vital support of residents of Ryedale, we would not be able to support those in need in our area.

I am also appreciative of the sterling work undertaken by the volunteers, but we do need more to enable us to continue to maintain and develop our services.

If anyone is interested please make contact at our Malton centre in Castlegate.

Jacqui Griffiths, manager of Ryedale Foodbank