When I met York Outer MP Julian Sturdy he explained that fracking produced less CO2 than coal power and that it could be a bridge to a greener future in 20 or 30 years.

However, the methane produced from frack sites is an extremely light gas which leaks rapidly and studies in the US have concluded that since methane is over 30 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2 the difference between coal and fracking for power generation is low.

This is no green alternative but a climate-wrecking grab for money from the generators, which of course means we the public have to pay to suffer the industrial blight of fracking.

The other point about the 30-year bridge is that the IPCC report gives us 12 years to fix the greenhouse problem. So, sorry Julian, we don’t have the time.

I am pleased that Julian and also Kevin Hollinrake, the Thirsk and Malton MP, are concerned that planning matters should not be taken away from local decision makers. But they should note that the taxpayer funds them and pays for their researchers to do extensive work on the full implications of fracking and they need to spend their next few lunchtimes doing exactly that.

Chris Clayton,

Hempland Drive,York

What could police chief have achieved?

What a load of insulting and despicable nonsense by Les Coverdale and Peter Rickaby (Letters, October 11) concerning the behaviour of Acting Metropolitan Police Commissioner Craig Mackey at the time of the fatal stabbing of PC Keith Palmer outside the Houses of Parliament.

Just precisely what did these two correspondents imagine the unarmed commissioner could have achieved faced by a crazed individual carrying two large bloodstained knives, intent on killing anyone who got in his way? Friendly persuasion?

Both correspondents failed to mention that the commissioner did attempt to leave his car but was dissuaded from doing so by one of his fellow officers who realised the sheer folly of such action.

M J D McDonald, Stockton Lane, York