August 22 letters special: Why fracking is such a threat to Ryedale landscape

MRS Thatcher’s former Press Secretary supports Conservative Government fracking agenda... what a surprise!

What Sir Bernard Ingham doesn’t understand (The Yorkshire Post, August 19) is that we’re not talking about one well in Kirby Misperton. The Government’s announcement of the 14th round of PEDL licences means we could be leaving our children a very different landscape than the one we know and love in the North – one with thousands of fracking wells.

There are seven new licence blocks on the North York Moors alone – at Keldholme, Spaunton, Lastingham, Fadmoor, Carlton, Gillamoor and Ebberston. So much for the Government’s promise to protect our National Parks.

Elsewhere in Ryedale, these blocks – subject to the same seismic surveys and complex technical planning applications for fracking that we have already experienced at Kirby Misperton – have been plonked on top of towns and villages like Malton, Norton, Huttons Ambo, Birdsall, Duggleby, Low Marishes, Settrington, Pocklington, Wetwang, Sledmere, Husthwaite, Coxwold, Ampleforth, Oswaldkirk and Gilling East. In the rest of Yorkshire there are many more in places like York, Scarborough, Doncaster, Sheffield and Hull.

So, to everyone who voted Conservative in the last election, be careful what you wish for. We may get our Northern Powerhouse all right, but at what cost?

From: Monica Gripaios, Brookside, Hovingham, York.

I FIND the tone of the pro frackers appallingly rude and aggressive, they describe all of us as ignorant and crazy, which is far from the truth. I begin to wonder why they are so rude, and can only assume they feel threatened by our concerns.

If being worried about climate change and hoping to leave the world in a safe state for our grandchildren is such a crime, then I would suggest they really don’t care about the future.

To suggest we want the lights to go out is absurd; there are alternatives and would be more if the Government stopped the massive subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and started investing in renewables. We all know that we need to leave most of the fossil fuels in the ground if we are to avoid temperatures rising over two degrees; why not start now?

From: Paul Hill, Fulwood Drive, Morecambe, Lancaster

IF you compare the distribution of Tory seats in the South with Labour in the North, you will find that both have large majorities. However, if you then compare the sites planned for future fracking, it’s a completely different story; the sites in the North easily outnumber those in the South.

The distribution is all about Members who represent seats in the South and who don’t want problems with their constituents. It’s far easier to sweep the problems up North where it really doesn’t matter. Let those horrible Labour people deal with it.

You can’t frack in the South because the pretty people live there in the pretty countryside; you can frack in the North, though, because it doesn’t really matter about the countryside or the people. It’s the same old Tory story: frack up North and send the money South.

From: Barbara Hickman, Nawton, York.

SIR Bernard Ingham is entitled to his opinions; being appallingly rude devalues them. He does not understand what the 24/7 fracking process entails, ie greatly increased traffic, noise, light, vibration; potential contamination of water and soil etc. If it goes ahead in Ryedale, (950 wells proposed), it will destroy the current economy of agriculture and tourism; the wildlife will disappear and a beautiful landscape will be industrialised. We residents care very much about the livelihoods of all who live in the area, and know the value to everyone of enjoying an unspoilt natural world.

From: David Cragg-James, Stonegrave, York.

IF Sir Bernard Ingham was not so obsessed with what he did 20 years ago, he would know precisely why Kirby Misperton, Ryedale and much of the wider world were keen to block fracking anywhere.

Why give publicity to this sort of argument when those opposed to fracking have been producing arguments – scientific, medical, social, commercial, and 
human – for much of the last five years, many of which have been rehearsed in your newspaper?

Is Sir Bernard really so ignorant of what precisely is at stake?

From: Josephine Downs, Highfield Terrace, Swinton, Malton.

AS a resident of Ryedale threatened by fracking, I found Sir Bernard Ingham’s article very offensive. Has he completely forgotten the astronomical costs – both human and economic of runaway climate change?

From: Coun Paul Andrews, The Beeches, Great Habton, York.

I WONDER what Sir Bernard Ingham would say if a fracking company was to frack in the area he lives in. Would he accept the loss of value of his house without any prospect of compensation in the national interest? If the answer is no, it is he who will be guilty of hypocrisy – not the opponents of fracking.

From: Bob Simons, Rowborn Drive, Oughtibridge, Sheffield.

THE current wholesale issue of fracking licences is surely an act of desperation by a Government which has suddenly realised that it has a non-existent energy policy and that the chickens are rapidly coming home to roost.

From: Terry Morrell, Prunus Avenue, Willerby.

HAVING read most of the comments about fracking, I am prepared to give it a chance. If half a dozen mines are established in the Home Counties, and are successful with no problems for five years, then they could be opened up here in Yorkshire.