YP Letters: Why Ryedale should embrace fracking

From: David Pasley, Pickering.
Protesters on a march against fracking.Protesters on a march against fracking.
Protesters on a march against fracking.

FRACKING is coming to North Yorkshire. No matter how many scaremongering letters Frack Free Ryedale with their loyal supporters peddling their doomsday scenarios write to the Press, it is coming.

We need a new wave of politics, people who can accept new ideas, new opportunities and bold enough to take on new challenges and new ideas.

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The majority of the population of Ryedale and North Yorkshire know that we must ignore the voices that oppose fracking and move to a position where we can embrace it. We must move on.

We need people with vision who can look to the future and see the benefits that this potential financial windfall can bring. To quote President John F Kennedy: “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

Imagine in the future a wealth fund from shale gas, negotiated with the companies involved and managed by a board perhaps from Ryedale DC and NYCC. The industry itself has come forward with a scheme which includes £100,000 in community benefits per well site where fracking takes place and at production stage, paying one per cent of revenues to communities.

Industry estimates are that this could provide £5m-£10m per well, over 25 years, but mostly in the first 10. As a result of using gas revenues wisely, we could have a local economy with strong and lasting foundations. Public services possibly improved beyond all recognition. A win-win situation for all of us.

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We need a new debate, not on how to stop fracking but how we can work with the industry.

Let’s get on with it.

Tugging us towards exit

From: Roger Backhouse, Upper Poppleton, York.

I WELCOME news of an expanding Yorkshire company and wish SMS Towing of Hull success with their operations (The Yorkshire Post, April 23).

But is it not ironic that their new tugboat designed in Germany and built in Turkey should be named Englishman? This follows Ford’s transfer of Transit van production from Eastleigh to Turkey and many other once great British brand names now made abroad.

I wonder what happened to Britain as the “workshop of the world”? Britain now imports far more than it exports and has the largest trade deficit ever, though it is a deficit that George Osborne fails to mention. A man can only admit so much embarrasssment.

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Despite the European Union’s many faults, it isn’t wholly to blame for Britain’s manufacturing decline. Rather we should look to our own politicians. No recent British Government has taken a genuine interest in the manufacturing sector. Industrial policy is something left to “free markets”, a touching illusion if ever there was one. Far Eastern competitors are willing to support their exporters in a variety of ways. No so the blinkered British.

I feel a sense of unreality about the referendum debate so far. Surely these are issues that should be addressed by both sides? President Obama’s extraordinary interference should be taken by waverers as a strong incentive to Vote Leave.

From: N Pearson, Leeds.

THE Americans are clearly very worried by the prospect of trade competition from a Britain freed from the shackles of the EU.

Driven to despair

From: NV Elliott, South Cave.

RE your recent story on the police failing petrol retailers.

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Your article appears to express surprise. Their lack of interest is endemic. The reply to our cricket club following the theft of over £10,000 of grass maintenance machinery? “Here is a claim number for your insurance company.”

No inspection of break-in damage. No inspection of tyre marks on field. No checking of fingerprints. Anything for a quiet life. Small thefts lead to bigger ones. Disgusted.

From: John Dowell, York.

I DROVE into a petrol station in Mississippi, USA. To pay at the pump I was required to insert my card, enter my PIN and my zip code.

Not having a zip code I had to go inside and pay up front for them to switch on the pump. I filled up, then went back for my change.

Public failure of management

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

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THERE are two major problems with most essential services in this country. The main one is lack of funding leading to staff shortages and the second, which is a major contributory factor in the first, is the multiple layers of management created by Government interference.

Take the NHS. The hospitals and surgeries were run by consultants, doctors and senior nurses and were well organised. Managers were brought in and they have not only created layers of undermanagers but taken finance from front line services.

The police service was run by men who had served their time on the front line. We now have political PCCs, who have no knowledge of crime or criminals. The Crown Prosecution Service frustrate police work. As a former station sergeant, I was the one who decided if an arrestee was put before the court and most were convicted.