Letter to Beverley Guardian: ' Oil's not well on the Wolds '
We wrote to object in the strongest possible terms to East Riding Council regarding proposals for oil
prospecting on the Yorkshire Wolds. The Green Party, along
with Friends of the Earth (FOE) and other well-respected organisations,
campaign, on the basis of careful research, for development
and use of renewable energy and fuel conservation instead of the further
exploitation of fossil fuels. We have
had a century’s addiction to oil - and we must now wean ourselves
off this addiction, as oil becomes harder and harder to find and to
extract. There are excellent alternatives which must be embraced instead
of resisted.
Since the use of oil is clearly contradictory to CO2
reduction, permission for exploratory
drilling should never
be granted on those grounds alone. In addition, the Wolds are and
should be considered an area of outstanding natural beauty,
and should not be subjected to blots on the landscape such as filthy, noisy,
smelly, toxic and brightly lit oil extraction plants. Wind
turbines would be far preferable in all respects...and
at least, with those, you can SEE what is going on. Mining and drilling
underground is particularly dangerous because it can have unexpected
consequences: ‘ fracking’ was apparently responsible
for an earth tremor in the Blackpool area. Underground water courses can
become adulterated . If this exploration were to be ‘successful’
the resource would be drained and then the company would move on to
despoil other sites, leaving a wasteland behind. Unfortunately, the lure of
the huge profits for the companies and their partners leads to them working
very hard to get agreement for this appalling activity. Think of
mountain top removal for coal in the United States.
Where will it end? How can industrial activity of this kind be
contemplated in the Wolds? There ARE alternatives – as usual, we have to
choose.
The ludicrously short timescale of ‘consultation’ in this
case is yet another cause for concern.
It suggests that both the Council and the company concerned have little regard for local residents’ views.
Residents in nearby villages received
letters only two or three days before the initial
planning meeting (at which the decision was deferred).
To allow this proposal for oil prospecting to go ahead would
be a gross abnegation of responsibility on the part of ERY Council, both in relation
to current citizens and to future generations, so please let your elected
representatives (both in the Council and Parliament) know your feelings on this
issue.
Shan Oakes
Green Party
Hull and East Riding
