Industrial landscape should be protected | Letters

Donal Boyle says Historic England must preserve some of the country's cooling towers; while David Smythe says there is no justification for fracking in the UKWe are in danger of losing a major feature of the late 20th-century industrial landscape (Gas under pressure: Solar plants squeeze power station firms, 30 January). I refer to the piecemeal removal of the 2000MW coal-fired power stations that have, since the 1960s dominated the flat landscapes of the Midlands and north of England. You feature the plant at West Burton. Located inland adjacent to the mines, the design of these necessitated the provision of massive cooling towers, their sculptural shapes visible on the horizon for many miles, complemented by the bulk of the turbine halls and boiler houses. Shouldn't Historic England list at least one or two of them? Didcot and Ferrybridge are already lost. I suggest protecting Cottam in Nottinghamshire and Fiddler's Ferry near Runcorn. Donal BoyleAghadowey, Northern Irelando Ken Cronin (Letters, 17 January), of the UK onshore fossil fuel trade body, responds to your editorial on fracking (10 January) by claiming that imported natural gas has "higher [environmental] emissions" than the gas "beneath our feet". This claim is akin to the 40-a-day smoker with lung cancer telling their doctor that only the last two or three cigarettes of the day do the damage, and promising to stick to 37 a day. There is a global gas glut. The UK is well supplied by imports from stable countries, the price of which is predicted to remain low and stable for years to come. So no additional bridging supply is needed while the 23m UK households that depend on gas are weaned off their fossil fuel addiction over the next one or two decades. Continue reading...