YP Letters: Fracking application is just tip of the iceberg for Ryedale

From: Russell Scott, Pickering and London.
Fracking rigs like this one are a common site in America.Fracking rigs like this one are a common site in America.
Fracking rigs like this one are a common site in America.

I WRITE in response to Lorraine Allanson’s letter (The Yorkshire Post, December 22) and the many flaws and misguided comments she made regarding fracking in Ryedale.

Firstly, I would like to point out that I am a member of the anti-fracking movement criticised by Lorraine along with many other people who live, work and run businesses in Ryedale. In fact we make up the majority in Yorkshire. Four thousand people objected to the recent Third Energy planning application and that number grows daily.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Secondly Lorraine suggests that the letter written by Sir Richard Storey and other well respected members of the community was a result of “scaremongering” by the anti-fracking movement and if they simply read Third Energy’s planning application their minds would have been put at ease. This is something I find offensive for a number of reasons.

Third Energy’s application to test frack in Kirby Misperton is for one well. This one well represents the tip of the iceberg for fracking in Ryedale. We already know courtesy of John Dewar, the operations director at Third Energy, that they plan to drill and frack up to 950 wells in Ryedale.

This means tens of thousands of HGV movements down our rural roads causing no end of damage. It means millions upon millions of gallons of fresh water permanently removed from our drinking water supply, creating a huge quantity of highly potent and potentially radioactive waste.

It means decades of a potentially irreversible industrialisation process across our beautiful rural areas and market towns.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It will create negative impacts on farming and tourism industries, public health risks, air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, road congestion and a potentially devaluing of property prices by up to eight per cent according to Defra.

And who cleans up the mess should Third Energy go bust? This is a question that the Department for Energy and Climate Change, and the Environment Agency, couldn’t answer at the recent “meet the experts” event hosted by the local MP Kevin Hollinrake.

Standing up to the fracking industry, challenging our elected representatives and campaigning for a ban on fracking is crucial if were are to protect the Ryedale way of life and avoid leaving a dangerous legacy for future generations to clean up.

It’s time the UK followed the lead of New York, France and others and ban fracking immediately.

Related topics: