I, LIKE thousands of residents of Ryedale, was deeply disappointed by the decision of North Yorkshire Council this week to allow hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) at the KM8 site near Kirby Misperton. The decision seems to fly in the face of all logic and runs against the vast weight of local opinion and expert advice.

Smooth words will tell us now that fracking is good for us, does no harm to the countryside, brings jobs and so on. Please let us all take heed of the experience of those countries where fracking has been tried (and in many cases subsequently banned); several hundred (evidence points to about 400-500) heavy lorries per fracking site have to drive down narrow roads to and from the well-heads to deliver water, sand and toxic chemicals to be pumped underground. Just exactly how do the seven councillors who supported the motion imagine these hundreds and hundreds of lorries will miraculously get to and from Kirby Misperton (and the scores of other well-heads that may follow)?

Turn a blind eye, if you must, to concerns about earth tremors and greenhouse gases…..you just cannot ignore hundreds and hundreds of tankers on country roads. How could we have spelled it out more clearly? We don’t want it. Is that clear enough?

C.I. Gadsby, Burgate, Pickering

“DO NOT be cowed by cries of foul play or precedent setting,” said Ian Gair, Third Energy’s commercial director, at Monday’s meeting, called apparently to ratify the government’s decision to hydraulically fracture in Britain for shale gas. “Would you stifle a child at birth for fear of what it would grow into?”

“Perhaps not”, remarked a friend to me, “but nor would I buy a puppy without knowing what kind of dog it would grow into”. The puppy Third Energy is offering just could grow into a rather nasty beast – a process referred to as proliferation – but councillors were denied the opportunity to take this into consideration.

A sad day for democracy, a sad day for common sense.

David Cragg-James Rose Cottage, Stonegrave, York

NORTH Yorkshire County Council Planning Committee, in approving Third Energy’s fracking application in Ryedale, failed to address the many objections raised by over 80 speakers during the hearing. Seven councillors overruled opposition from Ryedale District Council, and chose to agree with 36 written representations supporting the application, while ignoring 4,375 against. They, and the MP for Thirsk and Malton Kevin Hollinrake who has consistently backed the frackers, should be rewarded with resounding defeats next time they stand for election.

Simon Sweeney, Glebe Cottages, Sheriff Hutton, York