Dear Editor, At the anti-fracking public meeting held in the Bowmar Centre on 26 November, between 7pm and 9pm, there were no elected politicians on the platform in the hall.

Nevertheless, the hall was packed with several hundred people and two district councillors. One from Clackmannanshire and one from Cumbernauld. I did not catch their names as I am deaf in both ears.

During the course of the meeting the following facts came out. The unconventional gas and oil companies want to sink several wells, at least one company wants to sink 1,300 wells in the central belt of Scotland, possibly the Forth Valley.

Thousands of gallons of water, mostly fresh, will be required for the process and that water, along with salt water and chemicals, will be dumped in our rivers.

Only one person, the councillor from Cumbernauld, knew how the local councils could block this action by the oil and unconventional oil companies.

Scottish Water is a company that can be controlled in its actions towards the gas and oil companies by the local councils telling Scottish Water not to supply water to the oil and gas companies.

During the course of the meeting it also came out that the activities of the oil and gas companies may potentially affect the beer and whisky industry because these industries require a certain quality of water.Germany has banned fracking to protect the German beer industry.

It also came out during the course of the meeting that the only jobs created by fracking will be, in the main for technicians to develop and maintain the wells.

Other things that should have come out at the meeting did not. For example, it has been claimed that INEOS, which operates the Grangemouth plant, is investing £640m and it has recently acquired 729 square miles of fracking exploration licences in central Scotland. This could make Grangemouth the “European hub of fracking” with £230m of tax payers’ money.

Yours sincerely, John Mitchell Tullibody Dear Editor,