Dear Councillor, Could We Have An Economic Boom Please?

I understand that Wakefield councillors are voting on whether fracking licences should be granted in the Wakefield area.

As a Wakefield resident, I would like to urge you to support the granting of licences – we need economic revival in Wakefield.

If the northern councils took the lead, with a plan for a new industrial and technology revolution, you could be on the front foot and give real meaning to the “Northern Powerhouse”.

The debate on fracking is a good example.

Do we want jobs, cheap energy and company profits to fund local council budgets – and a sense of economic dynamism and hope

or

Do we want to be cowed by wild stories of earthquakes and poisoned water put forward by anti-tech activists and lobbyists?

There are many examples of how fracking has transformed local authority and state budgets in the US and created localised economic booms.

The fears about earthquakes and poisoned water and explosions and environmental catastrophe are blown out of all proportion and are primarily urban myths. Many eminent people have debunked them. The people who promote these stories are against any technology that advances human development.

We should oppose the government under-mining local democracy by forcing through drilling liceneces, but take the initiative to support a new gas extraction industry yourselves.

Please consider this – on questions like this our future is at stake.