WE IN the Wirral Society, working with the Campaign to Protect Rural England, continue to consider how energy decisions – be they relating to wind turbines, Underground Coal Gasification under the Dee Estuary (UCG) or Hydraulic Fracturing on land (‘fracking’) – might affect the peninsula.

It was interesting then to read your recent item headed "Fast-track fracking drive is bad news" referring to the government's wish to speed up decisions on fracking applications.

It is strange that both we, the public, and local councils alike, continue to lack hard information on how the initial drilling and subsequent extraction processes could actually impact on local landscapes or seascapes.

If only this information was properly evaluated and publicised, it might be that this could help improve and speed up the decision-making process.

As things stand though, Margaret Greenwood MP has good reason to worry that the borough’s coastal landscapes might be turned into industrialised zones – which would sadly just add to Wirral's already over-industrialised seascape – soon to be blighted by a further 70 massive wind turbines close to the Hoylake-Meols coast, bringing the total visible from North Wirral, to around 320 in the area of Liverpool Bay.

As regards the reference to different process involved in UCG, we have it on good authority the company concerned has withdrawn its interest in the Dee Estuary for the foreseeable future.

Rod Tann, Chairman, Wirral Society.