HOW many more times are Chris Grayling’s bunch going to allow East Coast to fail, losing billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money?

There have been three failures in 10 years, then only last week the minister says a temporary Government company will be appointed.

This means all coaches re-painted and re-branded, staff uniforms replaced etc, etc. Then in a couple of years ‘Fantasy Railways’ will promise the Tories billions and will be seduced by the pound signs in their eyes and fall for the three card trick yet again.

For goodness sake, stand aside and let professionals run our rail network because you amateurs really haven’t a clue.

William Moore,

Lochrin Place, York

Saving water effort is a drop in ocean

I READ with interest your article “On the water margins” by Hannah Stephenson (The Press, May 26) on how to save water in the garden.

It hardly seems real that we have only just emerged from a bitterly cold spring that never was. Rain and cold. And yet, here we are being encouraged to save water.

Well there is nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, a typical fracking well, of the many thousands the Government plans, uses nine million gallons of water.

The radioactive polluted water that comes back up they want to dump at sea, or evaporate on the land in lakes.

In the US in arid states, fracking is reckoned to be a serious threat to drinking water supply and agriculture.

In a public meeting Julian Sturdy came up with the official line that fracking was a “bridge” to a low carbon future.

Someone then asked him “what sort of a bridge lasts for 30 years?” There was no reply.

If we let these frackers loose, I cannot see the Tour de Yorkshire lasting here.

This will be a great shame as it is in line for world status.

Chris Clayton,

Hempland Drive, York