Wind power funds needed elsewhere

WE live in an age of ever-developing engineering and chemical opportunities, especially in the fields of power generation and transport. At the same time there are many demands on the country’s financial resources and it is vital that we channel the funds available into the most beneficial directions.

The present concentration on wind farms is not good value for money. A lot of it would not be going ahead without the big subsidies which are a direct surcharge on our electricity bills.

Wind power, by its very nature, is intermittent and has to have 100 per cent back-up when the wind supply fails. It’s rather like having a car which has fuel some days and not others, meaning we should have to get bicycles out or stop at home.

We have some of the world’s best engineers and chemists in this country; you have only to look at the achievement of Rolls Royce as an example. We cannot afford to waste the skills we have as well as our limited financial resources on an obviously inefficient production system.

Co-operate to clean up world

From: David H Rhodes, Keble Park North, Bishopthorpe, York.

THERE is a saying “one cap fits all” but it doesn’t. The negotiations on the Kyoto Treaty are in hand and while the intentions are good in trying to reduce CO2 emissions certain countries should stop their “nanny knows best” mentality with an element of bullying.

If one takes a trip to Beijing in China, you will find a permanent haze over the city. It is only when there is a heavy rainstorm that the pollution is washed out of the atmosphere and one might see the sun for a day.

So what might be their solution for energy production? In this case solar panels would be useless and wind farms next to useless.

Coal is there in abundance and I’m sure China won’t be dissuaded from using it. I believe that UK coal has the clean technology for steaming coal (not burning it) to produce electrical energy.

Surely co-operation and shared technology (at a small financial price) is the way forward. The UK has coal and shale gas with some oil which we should likewise use and each industrial country needs to look at its own natural resources and how best to use them.

Overall the planting of small and large forests round the world on a sustainable basis, ie re-plantation when trees are felled, will revive the lungs of the world mentality that the Amazon rainforest used to provide.

Glimmer of hope

From: Dave Haskell, Newchapel Road, Boncath, Pembs.

AT long last, some light at the end of the tunnel and a glimmer of hope from Government.

It would appear that good old common sense (sadly lacking of late) is making a return when the Chancellor George Osborne, perceptively stated recently: “We aren’t going to save the planet by shutting down our steel mills.”

We are certainly not in a position to save the planet, and never have been, nor will be, for if the whole of the UK were to shut down then 98 per cent of global emissions will still need to be accounted for – this is an undisputed fact – and remember the atmosphere recognises no country boundaries.

Vote out those councillors

From: Jon Marcus, Manor Court, Colville Gardens, Lightwater.

IN view of the overwhelming opposition to a huge supermarket at Malton, it raises questions over why Ryedale Council gave planning permission (Selina Scott, Yorkshire Post, December 6).

I would be interested to hear the reasons from each and every one of the councillors who approved it, and also from the council’s planning officials.

If the car park site, where the proposed supermarket will be built, was given to the council in the 1950s for a peppercorn £500 by the Fitzwilliam Estate, and has been sold to a developer for £5m, surely this provides grounds for a legal challenge?

Whatever the outcome, I trust the good people of Malton vote out the councillors who approved the supermarket. You know who they are.

Good luck with your campaign to retain your unique town.