YP Letters: Fracking is unlikely to prove a well of money for villagers

I HAVE news for Lorraine Allanson (The Yorkshire Post, March 23). INEOS, one of the biggest multi-national oil and gas companies, has recently refused outright to pay the Government-trumpeted £100,000 community payment for fracking wells that she is keen to promote.

Other companies will only be expected to pay it, if their well conforms to the Infrastructure Act, which states that for a well operation to be defined as fracking, it must use more than 1,000 cubic metres of fluid at each stage of hydraulic fracturing, or more than 10,000 cubic metres of fluid in total.

Guess what? The KM8 well at Kirby Misperton, although undoubtedly a shale exploration well, does not reach this arbitrary defining standard, so it is likely that no community payment would be considered necessary there. Even at other wells that may be eligible, payments are at the discretion of the drilling company and are not legally binding. As for the one per cent of profits, first of all there has to be a profit, and many oil and gas companies are not exactly financially buoyant at the moment. Maybe this accounts for their apparent desperation to get started, but any possible profit could be a long time coming.

I think Lorraine, that you are giving village people false hopes for an improvement to their lives, and which will not actually be forthcoming. Any payments that might be made must be weighed in the balance against potential leakage or spillage of well fluids as well as noise and disruption.

From: Steve Mason, Beech View, Great Habton.

THE impact that fracking has on the reputation of an area’s quality of food production, ability to gain organic accreditations and volume of production, etc. has been reported and discussed in Parliament, as well as in reports that have led to bans elsewhere in the world (e.g. Victoria, Australia) where 18 jobs in agriculture have been lost for every 10 in unconventional gas exploration.

We don’t have fracking yet and guess what? The lights have not gone out, our rural economy is growing and contributing to the UK economy and local unemployment is at a record low. Contrary to Lorraine Allanson’s claims, we do have entertainment and amenities in Ryedale and a social scene as well. Perhaps her one woman pro-fracking protest is feeling rather lonely at the moment?

It’s the 21st century, it is a given that greener technologies will detract from the need to dig up dead dinosaurs. North Yorkshire isn’t broken Lorraine, stop trying to break it!