Jenny Jones of the Green Party claims that extracting gas trapped in deep shale rock through fracking is “unsafe, environmentally damaging and water-intensive” and that local people will not benefit. She is wrong on all counts.

The UK water industry, which is obliged by law to provide us with clean, safe drinking water, concluded there was no danger to this from fracking. In the US, CO2 emissions have fallen rapidly as clean gas replaces dirty coal and oil in power stations, and as an island surrounded by sea water, which can be used for fracking, we have no shortage of water.

Will local people benefit? Well, in the US energy prices have fallen substantially, with wholesale gas prices down more than 50%. Whilst in the US, land-owners benefit from the ability to sell extraction rights, rather than their being nationalised as in the UK, but that should ensure everybody benefits from the license fees paid and taxes collected should we exploit this resource.

It is great to see the sensible girls from Walthamstow School willing to research things openly and think for themselves rather than be taken in by scare stories from those who would rather we grew our own food and paid three times what we pay now for energy.

Councillor John Moss, Conservative, Larkswood Ward LB Waltham Forest