YP Letters: The energy and economic case for fracking in Ryedale

For the UK to meet its climate targets by 2025, we need to erect one new wind turbine per hour for the next nine years just to keep the lights on. That would be 78,624 turbines. Where do we fancy having those in the UK?

And that’s not keeping us warm and fed. That’s why we need gas. Twenty-two million homes (84 per cent of us) are using gas central heating, while 63 per cent of us cook our dinner using gas. Lately around 50 per cent of our power generation has been provided by gas.

We presently send £4.5bn every year – the equivalent of £500,000 every hour – overseas in payment for imported gas. In 2004 we were self-sufficient for gas.

The UK has an excellent gas infrastructure to provide heating to the vast majority of homes. Think of the expense to householders converting their homes to electricity and the higher consumer charges for that power.

Electricity is not as cheap as gas. Imagine the extra infrastructure required by the National Grid to be able to cope. Scare stories abound but one thing is for sure – half a million pounds an hour going to foreign lands when the UK economy could be benefitting, now that is scary.

From Michael Farman, Willow Grove, Beverley.

IN her recent article about Yorkshire (The Yorkshire Post, August 18), the Prime Minister expressed sentiments that few here would disagree with.

However, those sentiments need to be followed by actions.

Since she so appreciates the natural beauty of the Dales, the North York Moors and the East Riding, and wants to encourage tourism, she should act to prevent the exploitation of these areas by fracking companies that would lead to huge numbers of fracking wells transforming our landscapes into industrial areas.

If Theresa May is serious about devolution, she should stop national government interference in local decisions.

I look forward to seeing her admirable sentiments lead to some real results.

NHS let down by bureaucrats

From: Mrs C Bell, Leeds.

REGARDING the letter regarding the hospital appointment sent to Geoff Hibbert by mistake (The Yorkshire Post, August 12).

Last year my husband received an appointment for a CT scan. He spent 35 minutes on the phone to the appointments department while they tried to find out who the appointment was for.

They told my husband that he had complained of pains in his legs – that was news to him. There were no details as to whom had requested the scan so somebody missed being sent for a CT scan.

Five years ago he attended the warfarin clinic for a first appointment. Two days later he received three – yes three – identical letters to say he had not attended the clinic and gave him a new appointment.

Now, in our 80s, we find the NHS treatment is wonderful but the admin lets it down badly.

Hang killers like Ripper

From: Karl Sheridan, Selby Road, Holme on Spalding Moor.

THE revelation that Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper serial killer, has now been declared sane comes as no surprise.

The annoying point about all this is that since he was apprehended in 1981 and imprisoned in Broadmoor he has been costing the taxpayer £250,000 per year for his board, lodging and eye-wateringly expensive medical treatment ever since. If ever there was a case for the death penalty, this is a prime example.

I fully support bringing back the death penalty for pre-meditated murder if there is absolute proof that the person has done the deed.

Sutcliffe and those twisted souls like him are unfit for society and a total waste of space.

Quite frankly society cannot afford the indulgence of keeping criminals like him in a life of relative luxury when many pensioners and children are suffering poverty – just think what £250,000 spent annually over the last 35 years could have done for them.

Angered by Afghanistan

From: John Watson, Rowan Court, Leyburn.

I DON’T think I have ever been so angry, watching TV, as I was the other night when the programme was shown about our troops in Afghanistan and what they had to endure when bogged down for 50 days in Helmand province.

What on earth were they doing in that God-forsaken country, fighting an uncivilised bunch of religious fanatics? How well they stuck to their task. The only way out of that place, apart from a rescue, was in a coffin, the alternative being capture and a slow death.

I know it was a Nato operation, but how many other countries took part? It seemed that the only ones hitting the headlines were Britain and America.

Why were our soldiers allowed to get into that situation? There must have been reinforcements available, and where was the use of air power?

We have just watched the commemoration of those killed on the Somme. It was said at the time that they were “lions led by donkeys”.

I think that, with the publication of the Chilcot report into Iraq, that maxim applies to the present day.

Close the door

From: S Ellis, Rotherham.

ARE people aware that we have to find 750,000 new school places by 2025 due to our growing population and open door migration?

Where’s the sanity in our public school-educated leaders? Where is the money coming from as we live in a fake economy heavily in debt?