YP Letters: Fracking campaigners come from all walks of life

IN response to a letter from Elizabeth Gegios from Leeds (The Yorkshire Post, January 31) that accused those of us who are opposed to fracking in North Yorkshire of being ‘nimbys’.

This comment is as offensive as it is naive. The coverage of the fracking debate in The Yorkshire Post is long overdue and very welcome on a topic that is one of the most important issues that Yorkshire currently faces.

The stalwart campaigners against this unnecessary and unwanted industry that threatens the health and well-being of us all – alongside untold damage to the environment, wildlife and our key industries of agriculture and tourism – are to be admired for their determination to lobby and peacefully protest.

They are a broad church of campaigners from all walks of life, many of whom have never waved a placard before in their lives, but who feel so strongly that they are devoting many hours to the frontline against fracking. Scaremongering about Russian threats and dependence on imported gas will not deter anyone who has done their homework into the reality of the risks that fracking will bring.

Instead of supporting this unholy ‘dash for gas’, the Government should be investing in the renewables industry.

From: Nick Hardman, Founder, Ryedale Against Anti-Social Protesters.

WHEN will you listen to the local people? Most of the “protesters” at Kirby Misperton are not local.

Furthermore Lorraine Allanson is not “a lone wolf”. We have a local group here now that boasts 850 members called RAAP...Ryedale Against Anti-Social Protesters.

We’re a mixed bag of pro and anti-fracking locals that have come together as a community to rid ourselves of the non-local anarchists who have blighted our community for over a year now.

From: Ross Taggart, The Avenue, Eaglescliffe, Stockton-on-Tees.

NO, York Minster will not fall down and the cattle will not die in the fields.

Of course Nicola Sturgeon has banned fracking in Scotland – she depends on the Green Party to keep her in power and they can still have the benefits of the gas from south of the border.

Yes, it is a shame that the gas is in Ryedale and not mucky old Teesside or the old coalfields of Durham, but if the good folk of Ryedale wait a short while they will doubtless find that the well-heads will disappear behind a few trees and nobody be the wiser.

I doubt if many of them even realise that gas extraction has been going on for years already in their part of the world!

From: Rob Wildsmith, Coach Road, Sleights, Whitby.

ONE of the points made by the anti-fracking protesters is that locals fully support their actions and are not concerned by the disruption they are causing.

Although there are many in Ryedale who would prefer that the fracking did not go ahead, this should not imply support for the protest camp.

My reading of the current situation is that a majority of people (if interested at all) are sick of the childish antics of the protesters and would like them gone. We are not ‘hayseeds’ who need saving from these nasty corporate giants by these self-appointed protectors, we are educated people with the ability to make our own decisions.

From: Wendy Hamilton, Rotherham Green Party, New Road, Firbeck.

AS a parish councillor in a small village near Rotherham, I am tired of people from UKOOG and fracking companies telling us what is good for us here in the North of England.

They cite jobs and gas as being what we need where the real motivation is profit for their shareholders and themselves.

The huge vested interest of multi-billion pound companies are trying to impose a dirty industry right across our region.

They think that throwing a few thousand pounds at these communities will make up for the disruption of 60m high drilling rigs and large trucks thundering through villages.

I am ashamed that my local MP Sir Kevin Barron says (The Yorkshire Post, February 1) that he is not against fracking in principle. Just what is Labour’s stance on this?

From: Simon Bowens, Friends of the Earth, York Place, Leeds.

PEOPLE in Yorkshire oppose fracking for a multitude of different reasons.

The Government’s own public opinion tracker has identified ‘loss or destruction of the natural environment’ as top of people’s concerns about the fracking industry. But there are others, including risks to public health and to groundwater contamination and, crucially, the impact on climate change.

With nearly 40 per cent of Yorkshire now licensed for fracking, and petrochemical giant Ineos looking to start exploration, we cannot stand by and risk losing our beautiful landscapes and natural habitats that draw people to the area in their millions.

As proud Yorkshire folk, now is the time to stand up and resist the fracking industry, and hold back the industrialisation of our countryside. Yorkshire is a beautiful part of the world. It’s up to us to make sure it stays that way.

From: Mr B Cowen, Hull.

SURELY the answer to the whole world’s energy and pollution probems is tidal power?

I stand on our pier and watch the massive volume of water go in and out each day. What a massive source of clean energy totally ignored.