“£5m gateway for new jobs” and “Climate strikes snowball as collective voice gets louder” were Gazette headlines on September 26 appearing respectively on page one and page three.

I cannot be alone in noting the incongruity of these stories. One trumpets the benefits of economic growth involving the destruction of eight hectares of greenfield land: a project welcomed by the leader of SLDC, who himself has campaigned for a greener council.

Furthermore, it promises creating hundreds of jobs at a time when local companies report a shortage of manpower only to be solved by more immigration from overseas.

The other story reports massive support for measures to combat global warming which necessarily involves a huge reduction in economic activity: certainly more cars, as envisaged in the first story, is not what the protestors in the second story want to hear.

Advocates of emission cuts still have a long way to go when our leaders think that “growth” (and this includes population growth) is the only way forward. In fact, nothing has been achieved since the first pledges to clean up our act were made in Kyoto more than 20 years ago and it becomes increasingly obvious that the necessary measures to avert catastrophic climate change are either not understood or ignored.

Until the mantra of growth at any cost is recognised and dealt with, global temperatures will continue rising. Growth of Rayrigg Motors is part of a global phenomenon which is not compatible with controlling climate change.

Kent Brooks

Kendal