Readers' letters - August 14

I cannot believe that fracking is still being allowed to go ahead at the Preston New Road site.

People have such short memories.

A few years ago they explored drilling at this site, and the tremors were felt in Blackpool then.

So once they really start drilling, we can expect worse to come.

At the time this application was halted by the council. Go forward a few years and up pops Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, and he overturns the council decision to refuse the fracking.

These protesters need applauding for what they are doing, not condemning them.

When local residents start seeing cracks in their properties, which they have worked hard to get, and water being turned off due to contamination, then these supporters of fracking will realise what protestors are trying to do.

But by then it will be too late.

Okay, there has been disruption for the traffic around that area, but surely that must be worth it in the long run?

Once Cuadrilla gets the go-ahead, you will see these types of sites moving in all over the country.

Other countries have banned this type of drilling, so why is this country allowing it to go ahead?

Mrs K Hough

Thornton Cleveleys

environment

Protest impact is too much

Cuadrilla’s decision to breach the planning regulations with their early morning drill delivery convoy was surely the right thing to do. It was clearly taken in the interest of minimising disruption and saving police resources.

However, it only seems to have hardened the resolve of the protesters to continue with their campaign of ‘lock-ons’ which has meant traffic delays and even the day-long closure of Preston New Road.

The road has been closed on six occasions and it is residents and commuters who are being inconvenienced, – not Cuadrilla, which now has the equipment on site to continue shale exploration activities.

Now we hear, through the Chamber of Commerce, that local businesses are suffering from the effects of these anti-social tactics, which are sapping Lancashire Police resources.

No responsible person can claim this is peaceful or lawful protest! It will continue until pressure is brought to bear on the authorities and the police to do more, with increased powers, to clear the highway.

It is a good job these protesters were not around 200 years ago, or else we probably would not have the roads, railways, canals, coal mines, airports, motorways, etc we have now!

Mr G Cash

Blackpool

environment

People should fear USA more

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

The world should fear Mother Nature far more than Kim Jong Un! If Donald Trump continues to ignore climate change – his latest move being to expand oil drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans to push for US “energy dominance” in the global market – she will unleash a million times more ‘fire and fury’ than any amount of nuclear bombs.

And, at the present rate of global oil consumption, it could happen within the next 25 years. Plans to stop selling petrol cars, come 2040, will amount to ‘shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted’.

Even now, Americans in the Arctic are facing the disruptive effects of three record-breaking warm years following decades of rising temperatures, rising seas and melting permafrost.

Dozens of villages inhabited by Alaskan native peoples need to relocate – but the money isn’t there. This surely tells us that climate change is on the brink of ‘freefall’, if not already past it. The US, not North Korea, is the nation humankind should fear!

Allan Ramsay

via email

environment

U-turn over local plan

Those of us who are interested in the future of Lancaster and Morecambe thought we knew what that future looked like after the council voted on the outlines of the local plan earlier this year.

It seems we were wrong.

Now buried in an addendum to an appendix to key documentation, we find that all the sites that the council voted not to take forward for development are to be ‘reconsidered’ and could be at risk after all. Why is this about-turn happening? Dr A T Fear

Address supplied

mystery

Who are Fast Walker & Pea?

Whilst taking photographs in Avenham Park, I came across several padlocks attached to the mesh panels on the old East Lancashire railway bridge which crosses the River Ribble.

One of those padlocks, which I photographed, is dedicated to ‘Fast Walker & Pea’ (pictured inset). This has intrigued everyone that has seen the photograph and I wonder if you could find space to publish the photograph in the hope of solving the mystery. Who are Fast Walker & Pea?

David Kippax

via email

entertainment

Head to head with Poldark

I see our Brilliant Broadcasting Company (BBC) has excelled itself again by ensuring we will all watch the athletics, delaying the start and thus making Poldark fans await, with bated breath, the final episode of the current series.

Indeed, broadcasting the ‘same’ programme at the same time on both BBC1 and BBC2, at peak viewing 9pm on a Sunday night, was truly inspirational – no doubt a number of ungrateful and misguided souls will claim it is an abuse of the licence fee?

Dave Haskell

Address supplied

royalty

Pot calling kettle black

Paul Burrell says it’s disgusting Channel 4 are playing the People’s Princess’ private conversations. Is this the same Paul who was Diana’s so-called rock, the one who wrote a book about her and has been dining out on his Royal stories ever since?

Pot, kettle, black.

Jayne Grayson

via email