NOW that the regulatory bodies and Ineos have informed the public and we have had the opportunity to ask questions and digest the answers, it is very clear that this is a journey into the unknown.

The proposed test fracking operations in Lancashire currently going through appeal – just two frack pads – would take up and excel the full capacity of the North West to deal with envisaged waste.

The sort of full production proposed by Ineos in Cheshire would require that capacity many times over, which, by the way, does not exist.

The process of eliminating radioactive material from the waste is unproven, especially at the volume required.

Disposal may just mean into the sea.

Tom Pickering’s cut and paste answers from the industry text book does not stand scrutiny.

Gas can play only a modest role as a bridging fuel in the UK between now and 2020.

Without carbon capture and storage, there is little scope for gas use in power generation beyond 2030.

Not my words, but the UK Energy Research Centre report in February 2016.

Shale will not make money when oil prices are below $100 a barrel – Gundi Royal Energy Analyst and Geologist, November 2015.

Emission rates from fracking sites are 23 times greater than conventional wells.

A report published by the Royal College of Physicians in February concluded that pollution kills 40,000 people in the UK every year – cancer, asthma, heart disease and dementia are all linked.

Studies in the USA compared air quality in fracking areas and areas without.

They conclude hospitalisation goes up by 27 per cent in fracking areas. Complaints are exactly the same as reported by the UK report from the RCP.

We already have a real problem with air quality in the UK – see World Health Organisation report from January.

We need to address this problem, not significantly make it worse.

Add to this the industrialisation of the Cheshire countryside and you can see why many of us are not backing fracking.

There is plenty of conventional available gas and oil in the world without this intrusive high-risk process in Cheshire. There are good alternatives to our needs and jobs without the destruction of our land and water.

Nigel Hennerley

Green Party