August 27: Defending our heritage from frackers - and Bernard Ingham

HAD Sir Bernard Ingham (The Yorkshire Post, August 19) any first-hand experience of fracking, he couldn’t have written such an ill-informed and, therefore, silly article wrapped in his own pre-Thatcherite politics.

Friends of mine with real experience of fracking now surrounding a wonderful garden that they and their forebears had had created, open to the public, write as follows: “Our home has changed beyond recognition with 14 well sites. Hardly a local road exists without pipelines crossing or running down the verge.

“We closed our garden because the huge increase in heavy and hazardous tankers made travelling here unsafe for our visitors. The noise of the road traffic heard in the garden is unbearable; when working outdoors these days we usually wear ear fenders. We were promised only very small works, but these soon escalated hugely to bear no resemblance to the start. Fracking, re-fracking, and flaring is routine. Our little country roads are now unsafe for walking or animals, being used for petrochemical transport travelling at speed.

“While an oil drilling rig may only need 70 heavy transport loads, it is only a tiny proportion of transport generated by a site. Actual traffic has exceeded the original contract by well over 1,000 per cent. Some companies flair for months on end, day and night, all around the year. We don’t need electric lights at night.”

Simply, my knowing this garden, these people, and their community, and reading what has been written above, I find this just tragic.

If this generation in Yorkshire betrays our heritage by now allowing fracking, it will be despised and hated for generations to come.

From: Steven M White, Great Edstone, York.

FOR the record (Bernard Ingham, The Yorkshire Post, August 19), far from being a “rag bag of so-called environmentalists”, Frack Free Ryedale is a large grouping of local residents including chartered surveyors, farmers, project managers, local councillors, doctors, teachers, small business owners and so on – the vast majority of whom have never protested about anything before.

Labour and the hard left

From: Coun Nick Allen (Conservative), Bessacarr Ward, Doncaster Council.

LIKE nearly all politically-minded people, I am following the Labour leadership election with keen interest. I was pleased when I read The Yorkshire Post’s recent coverage of Andy Burnham’s warning about the impact which infiltrators could have on the outcome.

That intervention demonstrated why pre-empting an election result is never good for politics. It is interesting that Mr Burnham did not address the much wider implications that entryism could have on the future direction of the UK. His warning was issued because he has not been as successful as Jeremy Corbyn at packing the Labour Party with supporters. The imputation is that Mr Burnham is frightened that he will not be elected.

Although I am a Conservative councillor, and part of me wants to jump with joy because this crisis could lead to the long term decline of Labour, I am still a democrat and I value parliamentary democracy.

I recognise that Labour are at risk of reneging on a responsibility to act as the main party of opposition. There are constitutional issues present within this election and the outcome of this “debate” is going to have consequences for us all regardless of which party you support.

A number of residents in my ward, people from all parties and none, have spoken to me about this. They all agree that this election could damage both Labour and the UK’s democratic institutions. There is a real fear within the community which I represent because left wing extremism could be imposed on the Labour Party (and on the UK) through the back door.

Blessings of modern life?

From: R Webb, Wakefield.

I READ with great interest the letter from G Wright (The Yorkshire Post, August 20). Life was certainly much harder in the 1930s and ‘40s, families finding it hard to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads.

Life was much more labour intensive, both in the home and earning wise. Can you imagine today’s youth working a mangle on wash day? Meals were home cooked, from simple ingredients. The only take-away being fish and chips, a rare treat.

Regarding stress, walking home from school and finding your family had been evicted from their home and their furniture put in the street was all too common an occurrence.

Today, many people live on ready-made meals and junk food. People live much more sedentary lives. The human body needs physical activity.

The unfortunate thing about computers, the internet and mobile phones is they make people lazy, or even criminals who can now commit crime from the comfort of their own homes by hacking. New technology is also a tool well used by terrorist organisations.

How these vile organisations would struggle without the use of new technology to radicalise naive people. Making the world a smaller place and things too easy seems to be proving more of a curse than a blessing.