YP Letters: Vote is chance to strike back at fracking

WITH North Yorkshire County Council elections taking place today and a general election in five weeks, we need – as voters – to carefully consider who and what we are voting for.

We need to think about the future of Ryedale and how we would like it to be for generations to come.

Ryedale is under the biggest threat we have ever had from industrialisation. The Conservative government is set to push forward the unconventional shale gas industry (fracking) in this country and particularly in Ryedale. Most of our countryside is covered in licences (Petroleum Exploration Development Licences), which have been bought by Third Energy, Cuadrilla, Igas and INEOS.

These companies will be seeking planning permission for licences in the coming months and years and if successful, we are looking at huge scale industrial development.

The elections offer us an opportunity to vote for change. We live in a very special, unspoiled rural part of north Yorkshire. Please vote to keep it this way.

Let politicians answer back

From: Elisabeth Baker, Leeds.

I AM constantly shouting at the interviewers of the big interview after the 8am news on Radio 4’s Today programme, telling them to let the interviewees answer the question before interposing with another question or, frequently, just a “clever dick” comment. I want to hear what the interviewees have to say, not how well-informed the interviewer is.

However, both Nick Robinson and John Humphrys have really excelled themselves in the days since the general election was declared. When “interviewing” the Prime Minister, Nick Robinson did not let her answer a single question without interrupting – frequently after she had not uttered even one whole sentence.

John Humphrys was exactly the same with the Foreign Secretary. John even had the audacity to say “Let me finish asking the question if I may” at one point and went on to say “An interview consists of questions as well as answers!” But he doesn’t permit the interviewee to answer. The words pot, kettle and black come to mind.

Don’t blame the red kites

From: SK Kershaw, Crooks, Sheffield.

IN answer to the letter from WB Stockdale (The Yorkshire Post, May 1) regarding the scarcity of curlews and lapwings being due to the red kites at Harewood, these birds were in decline from the early 90s. The first Harewood kites were introduced in 1999.

Perhaps he should ask the farmers when they changed to autumn-planted crops and started increasing drainage. I do not blame the farmers for this as their livelihood depends on efficient use of their land but the effects on wildlife need to be recognised without trying to shift the blame elsewhere.

Hats off to our Tour crowds

From: Mike Flanagan, West Sussex.

THE Tour de Yorkshire – what a good race and all the races so well conducted and promoted, but what about those super Yorkshire crowds that supported the event?

Yorkshire has always produced some fantastic bike riders and those crowds really need to be congratulated.

Well done Yorkshire... you people are wonderful. Always have been, but you showed it so well.

From: Allan Ramsay, Radcliffe Moor Road, Radcliffe.

YORKSHIRE might be totally committed to becoming cycling friendly, but when motorcyclists can ‘scream’ past Manchester cyclists, riding over Ribblehead, (on a weekend tour of Yorkshire), at 100mph, and 40 tonne quarry trucks pass them at 60mph against oncoming traffic, Britain clearly has a ‘mountain to climb’ to make cycling the transport choice that it could – and should be.

From: Allen Jenkinson, Lipscomb Street, Milnsbridge, Huddersfield.

IT is not the Tour de Yorkshire, it is the Tour of Yorkshire. Okay, it’s marketing but Yorkshire doesn’t need pretentiousness of any kind, it is quite capable of standing on its own two feet, you don’t go into a pub and ask for a pint de Tetleys.

While we are at it, how will I receive my £11.32, (£60m predicted income to the county divided by a population of 5.3m, according to the ONS census 2011)? Will it be sent direct to my account or are there plans to open offices in the major towns and cities?

Saddened by sports death

From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

I WAS saddened to read of the death of Malcolm Huntington who I knew well (The Yorkshire Post, April 29). Malcolm was a great servant of sport, both as a star Wimbledon umpire and local sports journalist. My sympathies go to his wife Gina and family. Gina was herself a fine tennis player and later a coach.