We welcome cyclists to Tour de Yorkshire 2019 but not plastic industry sponsors like Ineos – Yorkshire Post letters

FRACK Free Wakefield welcomes all the excitement that the Tour de Yorkshire brings to our beautiful county and we hope that this year’s event is enjoyable for both participants and observers.

Why anti-fracking groups are calling for protests at Tour de Yorkshire 2019 – Yorkshire Post letters

We are, however, dismayed by the fact that the premier GB cycling team now has a new sponsor/owner – Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

He is the UK’s richest man and he owns Ineos, the petrochemicals giant which is one of the largest single-use plastic producers in Europe. Ineos wants to drill and frack for shale gas in Yorkshire, in order to provide fuel for its plastics factories.

Most of the Wakefield Metropolitan District is licensed for shale gas exploration, although no planning applications have yet been submitted.

Fracking for shale gas would be environmentally disastrous for our region.

The green fields and valleys that millions will see as the race is televised worldwide would be marred by fracking pads, gas storage and all of the infrastructure that is a part of this industry.

Fracking would force millions of gallons of our increasingly precious water supply down thousands of wells in order to extract shale gas, in order to burn this fossil fuel and make even more plastics.

Those living close to fracking sites would be at risk of a variety of health issues due to the methods of extraction.

We should not be allowing a new fossil fuel industry to develop in our country, when the science of climate change tells us that we are rapidly approaching a tipping point in terms of irreversible catastrophic global warming.

We feel that sponsorships of this kind should be banned because of the health risks posed by the fracking industry, just as it has been in the tobacco industry.

This sponsorship of cycling by Ineos is, in fact, promoting an industry that is damaging our planet.

From: R Hartley, Shadwell Lane, Leeds.

THANK heavens for the knowledge and good common sense from Michael Green (The Yorkshire Post, April 29).

Nearer to us in time are the instances of the Romans growing vines in this country and ice skating on the Thames and nearer still, I saw ice floes on the Humber in 1947. What a winter that was! Whereas I am all in favour of keeping our atmosphere clean, surely it can be done by new technology?