Are you worried about FRACKING? You should be.
The Conservative Government, supported by the LibDems has taken away your rights to refuse consent to fracking under your property. This is a kind of legalised theft, as a valuable right is taken away without compensation, and the benefit is passed on to the fracking companies.
There are concerns about contamination of the water supply, mini-earthquakes and large numbers of HGV movements to and from each fracking pad, but what would a fracking Ryedale look like?
Vertical boreholes are drilled 8,000 – 10,000 feet, and then horizontally. Fluid is pumped down at high pressure to break the rock and release gas.
Each borehole has a range of two and a quarter km at most. This means that, in order to fully exploit the Ryedale gas field, there would have to be bore hole pads at intervals of four km in every direction. .
Each pad could expect to have boreholes with horizontals going off in many directions, and at five levels. So, each pad could have as many as fifty boreholes each.
Third Energy have already announced they are planning 19 fracking pads in Ryedale - each one with between 10 and 50 boreholes.
It takes a hundred days to drill a borehole of this depth and length, and the drilling rigs are about a hundred ft. high. They are noisy, operate continuously day and night, and at night time they are lit up like Christmas trees. Drilling will be continuous over many years.
Just imagine the impact on amenity and the tourist trade!
For more information visit www.paul-andrews.net/FrackingMenu.htm
Paul Andrews says: “The Conservative Party can no longer claim to be the political guardian of the countryside: all they are interested in is big business, the City and the South-east. On 17th February, Conservatives on Ryedale District Council refused to condemn fracking in principle. Conservatives cannot be relied on to represent local residents in the coming fight.”
What happened to the Bins?
Before 2009 Ryedale decided to collect brown and green bins on alternative weeks instead of weekly. In 2009 the Council decided to collect brown bins monthly during the three winter months, and then discontinued winter brown bin collection altogether.
Paul collected 500 signatures to a petition asking the Council to put the money saved into additional weekly green bin collections during the school holidays. The petition was dismissed.
For the last six years Ryedale has failed to increase its element of the Council tax to take account of inflation. This decision was a political gesture and was not based on sound business reasons. So there was a shortfall and one way of recovering this shortfall was to impose a new charge for the emptying of brown bins.
Councillor Andrews says: “The charges have fallen on the poorest as well as the better off members of the community, and have led to much fly tipping. The bins is the one Council service which the public knows best. It is astonishing that this of all services should have become the victim of Council economies.”
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COUNCILLOR PAUL ANDREWS WORKING FOR YOU
Paul Andrews has represented Malton Ward on Ryedale District Council for twelve years – eleven of them as an independent resident.
Paul is a town councillor of Malton Town Council and the town’s deputy mayor. He is a Habton Parish Councillor, vice-chair of the Milton Rooms Committee, and a member of the Malton and Norton Area Partnership. He represents the Town Council on the Five Towns Committee.
67 years old, Paul has university degrees in Law and Classics and is married with two sons. He is a retired solicitor and has published articles and letters in the local press. He is a local author with one published novel (www.the-loner.net)
A former governor of Malton School, he led the campaign for the joint-use sports centre there from 1997 – 2003. His car park campaign resulted in a 14 month reduced fees pilot at Wentworth Street Car Park in 2007/8. His campaign against a superstore on Wentworth Street Car Park has been vindicated by the decision of an independent, impartial, government inspector, who ordered Ryedale to pay £148,000 costs (equivalent to 4% of Ryedale’s element of the Council Tax).
Paul successfully campaigned for the engagement of an independent hydrological engineer to negotiate with the Environment Agency on flood prevention.
Paul has fought a determined battle against the Ryedale Plan, in order to stop the town from being overwhelmed with new development which the existing infrastructure is unable to accommodate.
Paul says: “Conservative Controlled Ryedale Council has ridden roughshod over the Malton and Norton Interim Neighbourhood Plan, agreed by both town councils after a full public consultation, by persisting in the sale of Wentworth Street Car Park, and opening up Malton to excessive development. The Conservatives do not care about Malton. Conservative Leader, Linda Cowling, once referred to Malton residents as ‘the moaning minnies of Malton.”
Campaign issues:
- Paul is against fracking, which will reduce house prices, destroy our beautiful countryside and only benefit big business
- Paul is against a superstore on Wentworth Street Car Park.
- Paul will work hard to reverse the fees for brown bin collection imposed by the Conservatives.
- Paul supports the campaign to keep Malton Hospital open.
- Paul wants to see the Ryedale Plan changed so as to give Malton better infrastructure and no more than its fair share of new development.
- Paul wants to keep the library in Malton Town Centre.
- He will ask the Council to reconsider cuts made by them, such as the cuts to funding for the Malton Museum, police cameras, the Tourist Information Centre and the skate park.
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What happened to the Malton and Norton Interim Neighbourhood Plan?
See www.paul-andrews.net/2010ResponLDF.htm
In 2011, after a full consultation, residents supported the interim Neighbourhood Plan promoted by Malton and Norton Town Councils. This included the view that there should be no more than 1,000 new homes (as from January 2009 until 2026).
Ryedale refused even to put the Neighbourhood Plan before Council members for consideration.
Instead they adopted the Ryedale Plan which forces Malton and Norton to take 50% of all new housing and 80% of all new employment development from 1st April 2012 until 30th March 2027. As regards housing, this amounts to 1,500 dwellings. However, this does not include permissions granted between 2009 and 2012 or a “buffer” – so that the true figure from January 2009 is nearer 2,000 dwellings (as against just over 5,000 dwellings which existed in both towns in 2008).
Paul challenged the Ryedale Plan before a local plans inspector in 2012. He attacked the Council’s “Strategic Transport Assessment” which says that traffic from this monstrous increase can be accepted. He produced evidence from Alan Martin, a retired County traffic officer with 30 years experience of highways development control in Ryedale. He also produced a report on land drainage and sewerage from a competent and experienced engineer – visit www.paul-andrews.net/2010ResponLDF.htm
The inspector was not interested, and the Council adopted the Ryedale Plan in 2013. This has left Malton wide open to the developers, and planning permission has been granted for 370 houses on Broughton Rise, another 300 on the Showfield and other sites, and there is an application for 500 houses at “High Malton”, and proposals for another 500 at Beverley Road, Norton, as well as other smaller developments.
All the traffic from Broughton Rise, the Showfield and the new superstore on the car park (if built) will empty onto Pasture Lane, and there will be chaos. There are no plans to build a motorway-type intersection between Broughton Road and the A64. There are no plans to provide a permanent solution for the flooding at Old Malton.
Councillor Andrews says: “ In a district comprising 550 sq.miles Malton and Norton are having to accept more than their fair share of new development. The 50% share of new houses will not stop with what already has permission. There is an urgent need to change the Council’s Plan – before it is too late.”
Paul lists the following successes:
- Saving his local pub as the hub of the community;
- Successfully lobbied the Fitzwilliam Estate to take back the lease of Market Place from the Council and make car parking there free;
- Leading the campaign for a joint-use sports centre at Malton School between 1997 – 2003. He continued his support after joining the Council and the sports centre was eventually completed in February 2011 (www.paul-andrews.net/articles2-400760455htm )
- Opposing the Environment Agency’s plans to take down flood defences protecting farms and villages. It took Paul four years to persuade Ryedale to pay for a hydrological engineer to negotiate with the Agency. Visit www.paul-andrews.net/flooding1209.htm
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