SUE Haworth takes me to task for asking who at the recent fracking meetings was speaking up for the elderly who every year die from fuel deprivation.

I did not suggest that fuel bills would come down as a result of fracking, I was suggesting that vulnerable communities should benefit directly from any fracking operations through a levy on the drilling companies.

The early discussions about fracking were led by some suggestion from the ‘frackers’ that local councils should be paid (say) £100,000 to spend on the community. My point was that giving councils or any public body money is a total waste, some 75% of the money would disappear in ‘management and admin’ costs with very little left for the community. I was suggesting some mechanism for getting any money directly to those who need it most i.e. credits against vulnerable peoples fuel bills. Pigs may fly of course.

Scotland now deeply regrets not getting more money for its communities from North Sea oil extraction. Fuel supplies are a strategic matter for government and the whole country. This government have already indicated that fracking will go ahead and government will over-ride local planning if necessary. Given that inevitability, is Bolton not better served by negotiating the best deal it can, rather than sit pulling faces?

I am not a geologist, and I suspect that very few of the fracking protestors are geologists either. For every ‘expert’ I read on line who is against fracking, there is another expert who will say that it will be beneficial. What I do know for certain is that natural earth, through volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, makes fracking look puny by comparison, and we seem to survive and go on.

Sue quite properly points out that the north seems to bear the brunt of mining/industrial operations again. That is geology again Sue, but all the more reason for getting something out of it this time round. Local politicians simply declaring that they are against fracking is not very astute, or sensible.

Sue sees a north/south divide in this, I take her point and I would be delighted if they found a huge oilfield under Eton playing fields, however, a bit closer to home we learn that the life expectancy for a boy born in a deprived area of Bolton is almost 12 years less that the life expectancy of a boy born in a more affluent part of Bolton. Should our concerns not be directed at that appalling statistic first? Could the fracking windfall help? Waken up Bolton or the fracking will start, and you will get nowt

Ron Shambley

Clough Avenue

Westhoughton