IN a thoughtful column, Steve Dancey asked what the position of all the candidates in the General Election is on alternative energy and fracking in North West Hampshire.

Since I am currently the only candidate who will appear on your ballot paper next May (I’m sure the others will show up at some point) I should give you my thoughts.

I think burning things is a bit old-fashioned, and that includes oil and gas.

Setting fire to things to generate energy seems prehistoric in these times of scientific discovery.

There are surely more intelligent ways to make energy and we must look to science for our future power needs, not deeper and deeper underground.

By the same token, we sometimes mistake re-engineered ancient inventions as modern.

Take wind power for instance: creating a more efficient windmill seems to me like trying to breed a faster horse rather than buying a car.

Wind power is old technology masquerading as new, and I would oppose any wind farm proposals in the constituency, not least as they only produce small amounts of power when it’s windy which is not often the same as when we need it.

That brings me to the ‘F word’. There are some great new technologies in operation today that we should develop and exploit before we resort to fracking.

I have long been a proponent of the hydrogen fuel cell for example.

This technology, invented in Britain, holds out the promise that one day we could power our houses with the hydrogen from the very water in our taps.

And I saw another exciting technology when I visited the Apsley Estate outside Andover.

There farmer Henry du Val is creating a power plant which will supply the heating needs of between 10,000 and 100,000 homes depending on the time of year.

In probably the largest bouncy castle in the country (which he made me climb), he is using natural digestion of agricultural crops like maize and wheat to produce methane, which he will then use to generate electricity or pipe into the gas network.

All his waste product is spread back onto his land as fertilizer for the next energy crop.

In short, while there is all this new, smart technology available now, holding out so much promise, I am firmly against rushing to rip up all the normal protections for the countryside just because there is oil or gas underneath it.

Kit Malthouse, Conservative Candidate North West Hampshire.