HAVING been at Northallerton County Hall on the first day of the application to frack at KM8, and then returned on Monday, I naively thought “Well no rational person could possibly allow fracking in beautiful Ryedale, even if they didn’t live there” .

But then it became obvious that the old fat cats had already decided, and that no matter what they would give it the go-ahead.

The chairman claimed not to understand a scientific report, the facts of which, if he had taken any interest in fracking at all, he would have been familiar with, but when offered the said report in writing claimed he had no time to read it over the weekend.

The planning officer’s report, which by the time she had finished most people had lost the will to live, at the end of nearly two hours, he had no trouble with.

The planning officer interrupted the proceedings, after someone on the committee spoke in favour of rejecting, warning people that they must state their reasons for rejection. No such regulations seem to make it essential that those in favour had to state their reasons.

The final vote was rushed, people and common sense ignored, and the whole thing became a farce.

Anne Stewart, Helmsley

I, LIKE thousands of residents of Ryedale, was deeply disappointed by the decision of North Yorkshire County Council this week to allow hydraulic fracturing 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.

One is left with the overwhelming impression that the seven councillors who supported the motion (none of which, you will note, actually live in soon-to-beblighted Ryedale) were “only obeying orders” from the government.

Their decision appeared pre-determined; the meetings of last Friday and the following Monday seemed no more than an irritating process to be followed; eloquent, unemotional, scientific evidence was brushed aside. Had the councillors listened to the people of Ryedale, they could not possibly have sanctioned the future rape of such a beautiful part of Yorkshire.

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.

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.

We are poorly served by these seven individuals; the weight of opinion in Ryedale is against them. They will eventually understand that.

A Gadsby, Pickering