Wind farms do not industrialise landscape, unlike fracking - Yorkshire Post letters

I HAVE recently been travelling for three weeks in France, where many wind turbines can be seen standing within beautiful countryside not unlike Ryedale.They are set in fields where many types of crops are are growing and cattle peacefully grazing.

In no way has the French countryside been industrialised by them, or indeed by solar farms where sheep can been seen grazing under the solar panels. This not what Mary Andrews would have us believe about renewables (The Yorkshire Post, August 17).

Why fracking in Yorkshire will be less visible than building more wind turbines – Yorkshire Post letters

There were no pylons, sub stations, battery farms or major road changes to be seen.

Contrast this with fracking sites in the US and Australia.

These are huge and cover large areas of land. One frack takes the same amount of water as is contained in two Olympic-sized swimming pools.

They are serviced by hundreds of lorry movements taking water, chemicals and sand to the fracking sites 24/7, plus removing waste. Would Yorkshire residents and tourists care to share these routes?

Fracking will ruin Yorkshire’s countryside: Yorkshire Post Letters

The gas wells described by Mary Andrews are indeed small, but they are conventional well heads. Incidentally these are not without problems e.g. leakages.

One has to wonder if any of this small number of fracking promoters have vested interests in this industry?

From: John Harrison, West Newton.

JUDGING by Dr Hemingway’s recent letter ‘An explosive atmosphere’, there seems to be confusion regarding the activities on the conventional oil and gas exploration site at West Newton and continuing claims that it is a fracking site.

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These claims not only ignore the fact that East Riding Council included a ‘no fracking’ clause in the planning conditions for the site, but also ignore that any plan for fracking must also be approved by the Environment Agency, Health and Safety Executive and the Oil and Gas Authority before final approval by the Secretary of State. The West Newton site operator has not applied to any of these agencies for approval of a fracking plan.

As a local resident close to the site, Dr Hemingway’s mention of noticing a ‘possible explosive atmosphere’ warning sign does give comfort and reassurance. It does not mean there is a leak, it demonstrates that the company operating the site, has complied with the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (the Management Regulations) and assessed the hazards.