YP Letters: Fracking will have minimal visual impact

From: David Bate, The Pines, Yarm.
The soon-to-be demolished anti-fracking camp at Kirby Misperton.The soon-to-be demolished anti-fracking camp at Kirby Misperton.
The soon-to-be demolished anti-fracking camp at Kirby Misperton.

I REFER to the letter entitled ‘Fracking will industrialise the countryside’ (The Yorkshire Post, March 7) from Simon Bowens of Friends of the Earth.

I am at a loss to understand why fracking is “industrialisation” to FoE and their fellow travellers, whilst forests of massive wind turbines on land and sea, and acres of solar panels, probably visible from outer space, are quite acceptable.

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Having spent some time in the oil and gas producing states of the USA, I can categorically state that mature gas wells have very little visual impact – just a pipe sticking out of the ground with a few valves and instruments, and a buried pipeline to take the gas away.

Huge rigs are only in evidence during the exploration phase, as is the traffic generated (and incidentally, in that respect, I recently had the misfortune to get behind to two huge turbine sections moving at five miles per hour or less on stretch of country ‘A’ road). There also seems to be a growing misconception that the fracked gas (essentially methane) is somehow going to be turned into plastics. Having worked in the petrochemical industry before retirement, I am not aware of any viable process to convert methane into the hydrocarbon monomers required to produce plastics.

From: John Cunliffe, Blackton Road, Hartlepool.

MY heart sank when watching the fracking warriors dismantling their “camp” at Kirby Misperton and felt they had missed a trick. The pallets etc could have been used as affordable homes in these rural areas, something we are constantly told are required but hardly ever produced in the numbers wanted. Why smash up the camp? Is it taking a month to leave so that the site will be as pristine as when the anti-frackers arrived? Hope so.

Dock time from holidays

From: Dr J P Whiteley, Stonedale Close, Pool-in-Wharfedale.

REGARDING school closures during inclement weather (The Yorkshire Post, March 9), of course the safety of pupils and staff must always be a priority.

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However, on a recent trip to the USA, I found that they have a rather different approach.

If a day or days are lost because of the weather, the time is made up by docking the equivalent number of days from the school holidays. Thus the students are not disadvantaged and no teaching time is lost. I look forward to this sensible idea been adopted in the UK, although I won’t be holding my breath.

Concerns over productivity

From: Allan Davies, Augusta Park, Grimsby.

I SHARE your correspondent R Spreadbury’s concern about the UK’s productivity problem. Sadly, it is a long term matter dating back to the 1870s.

In the period 1870-1913, the UK ranked 15th in the world productivity league and had been overtaken as a producer and exporter of manufactured goods by both Germany and the USA.

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I have a copy of a study of the UK economy On the direction of British industry: its course and its remedy. It was written in 1902!

Finding scapegoats – the EU, trade unions, health and safety – serves only to deflect attention from persisting effort to solve the real long-term weaknesses.

McVey would be ideal leader

From: Alan Chapman, Beck Lane, Bingley.

A RECENT article on the ConservativeHome website offers a profile of the Rt Hon Esther McVey MP by Andrew Grimson who states that she scares and infuriates Labour by reaching the Northerners it has neglected.

Furtherer he speculates that the Work and Pensions Secretary might be a future Conservative leader. This accolade is all too often given to a variety of relatively new MPs of all the political parties in Westminster.

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In Esther McVey’s case, I would find her very acceptable as she is clearly a proper Conservative with the same outlook as Philip Davies, my Shipley MP.

She would make a very welcome change to the succession of Liberal wimps who have succeeded Margaret Thatcher.

Let motorists notify police

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

REPORTS show that less motorists are being prosecuted for using mobile phones when driving. Why can’t other motorists notify police of the number plates of those seen using their phones?

A check of the phones of these drivers would confirm their guilt and result in prosecutions. Notification in this way is common in Australia where you see few drivers using their phones when on the road. Too many “human rights” in the UK?

May’s nodding donkeys

From: Tarquin Holman, Marsden Court, Farsley.

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WATCHING Prime Minister’s Questions on TV I have to laugh being reminded of the old song Donkey Serenade with all the Ministers nodding their heads off in agreement to Theresa May’s every word. I wonder if they have carrots for their breakfast.

A funny and poignant film

From: Janet Berry, Hambleton.

JUST been to see this brilliant film Finding Your Feet. No bad language or violence but life as it is, funny, sad, poignant. Imelda Staunton and Timothy Spall are superb, and although Joanna Lumley does not have a big part, she has some excellent one-liners!