YP Letters: Selective attitude to evidence over fracking

PRAISE goes to the four North Yorkshire councillors who listened to local residents over fracking.

Another councillor, while admitting to being a layman without any specialist knowledge, maintained that there was no option but to accept the application on trust based on expert opinion from official agencies.

Unlike a proper judicial process where both sides can legitimately present evidence from their expert witnesses, it appears that NYCC only entertains evidence from sources attached to the Government. If Friends of the Earth persist in getting a judicial review, I hope that this will result in a more balanced review of the evidence enabling expert witnesses from both sides to be accepted as valid.

From: AH Roberts, Harrogate.

IN addition to its other disadvantages, fracking has two operational drawbacks. Firstly the process takes a lot more energy than conventional oil or gas extraction, many miles of steel tubing and an endless supply of pumped water.

Secondly, shale gas extraction ends much more quickly: typically an oil well will run for decades compared with less than five years for fracked shale gas.