SIR – The news that David Cameron is to offer financially-hard-pressed councils what amounts to a ‘bribe’ of £1.7 million per year for allowing fracking in their districts shows a very questionable morality.

There are many legitimate question marks over the process of fracking and in fact it has been banned in many parts of the world, such as Germany.

The process has not been proved to be safe and many believe that it causes pollution as well as earthquakes. Significantly, it carries on the discredited pursuit of fossil fuels, which we should surely be abandoning.

Mr Cameron believes it will lead to cheap gas, but even this has been denied by many experts.

Surely, the question of whether it is right or wrong, safe or dangerous should not be decided on the basis of financial gain. And it seems doubly unfair and dubious, that while the Government claims to be hard up and squeezes local councils with one hand, it is happy to offer financial inducements to get its own way, with the other.

David Hornsby, West View Avenue, Wrose