Backing for
carbon capture plan

You will probably recall from previous letters that I, and many others, have been pressing the Government, through the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), local MPs and councillors, to stop wasting our money on on-shore wind farms when a much better alternative is available to us in the form of the carbon capture and storage projects being developed at Hatfield, Drax and Killingholme.

It is therefore encouraging to see that the not-for-profit energy advice group CO2Sense is pushing for a pipeline to collect emissions from all polluters in the wider area of Yorkshire for safe storage in depleted oil and gas fields in the North Sea (Yorkshire Post, October 16).

The benefits to employment and inward investment in the area would be a huge bonus on top of the plentiful and on-demand supply of low carbon energy, removing the need to further diminish our precious green belt land and blight our landscapes with costly, inefficient turbines. While it is pleasing to see support from the likes of Julian Smith, MP for Skipton and Ripon, it is disappointing that our three Doncaster MPs are publicly silent on the matter.

Ed Miliband was mainly responsible for getting Hatfield Colliery reopened and this is the base for the Don Valley Power Project, whose carbon capture and storage project was considered the best in Europe by the EU which has promised a total of £420m in grants with Samsung and BOC also looking to invest.

The DECC tell us that they will shortly decide how to allocate the £1bn set aside for one of the candidates or to be shared between the three. While Ed Miliband has stated that the Don Valley Power Project can contribute, it would be interesting to see his reaction to the great potential this whole project has for the employment prospects of his constituents.

The above contrasts starkly with the 50 per cent increase in tariffs payable by Germans following their switch from nuclear to renewables. A lesson surely for us in the UK to enhance our nuclear content, gradually reduce carbon emissions and restrict wind farms to off-shore locations.

From: John Towers, Burnt Yates.

REGARDING the letter from Rodney Atkinson on the “cost of green energy” (Yorkshire Post, October 19), I would ask him where he was when Tony Blair committed the UK to totally unrealistic EU CO2 reduction targets and signed them into the law? Also it is not David Cameron’s “coalition” that is the problem but Nick Clegg’s Lib Dems who resist every attempt by Conservative MPs to change the rules.

Silence on police posts

From: Keith Jowett, Silkstone Common, Barnsley.

I HOPE I am not alone in voicing concern about the lack of information, and resulting lack of awareness, of the impending elections of police commissioners in November.

I have been able to find the names of the three candidates for my region but so far nothing about the candidates themselves, other than that they are representative of the three main political parties. We are advised that these new appointments are very important to us and that we are being urged to register our votes.

I have always been a supporter of the democratic principle and regard it as a duty to register my vote whenever possible.

However, I fear that, since a majority of voters have no detailed information about the candidates, any votes actually registered will be governed by entrenched political allegiances

For myself, I cannot see what difference a political label can make to the potential suitability of a candidate for the post.

From: Mrs Jane Birkby, Broughton, Brigg.

REGARDING the forthcoming police and crime commissioners, they noticeably exclude allegiance to the Queen unlike the police whom commissioners will oversee. Compared with independent police authorities, commissioners cannot be impartial as their political background would inevitably cause party politics to taint their activity. Allegiance to the Crown (not Parliament) is paramount in any service to the nation.

From: Terry Duncan, Greame Road, Bridlington.

I WATCHED a regional TV debate among a number of candidates who hope to be the future police and crime commissioner for Humberside. They included John Prescott, the only one I recognised. However, everyone of them, it appeared, had already made up their minds what they were going to do to sort out the police and their roles, in the eyes of the public. There was just one man, Paul Davison, apparently a former senior bobby, who repeatedly stated that the job was to listen to the public and then decide what recommendations he could make to the local Chief Constable.

Prescott boomed off with politics and what he would do to sort out our criminal world, like some of the others on the panel.

Only Mr Davison seemed to have got the message on what his role would be, if elected.

Windfarms on small scale

From: Karl Sheridan, Selby Road, Holme on Spalding Moor, East Yorkshire.

I AM very much opposed to wind turbines, viewing them not only as an eyesore but seeing them as very much a cash cow for those wishing to cash in on a non proven project at the taxpayers’ expense. However, it came as a bitter blow when scanning a website that specialises in Hornby model railways to find that not only are scale model buildings, stations and bridges available but so are scaled down versions of turbines too.

So now it would appear that the damned things are even managing to blight the landscapes of H0/00 gauge model railway enthusiasts... is there no end to them?