I READ with interest Clive Heath's comments on hunting in relation to M. Wheeler's letter.

I wouldn't ban hunting for a very simple reason: business. Most of the countryside in England is under threat. It is under threat from people who wish to destroy the fabric of villages and rural communities, and make money. Over the last ten years my work has taken from the borders of Salisbury Olain up through the Cotswolds and across to the Severn estuary, and in my experience rural communities know and care for their environment and creatures therein.

I should make it clear that I have never hunted – but I would agree that hunting is an emotional subject. But I would even say it is necessary. It is necessary because never before have the majority of the people in our country been so disconnected from the countryside. Children do not know where their meat or milk comes from. Intensive farming has now taken a turn in favour of organic methods (quite rightly) and it seems only a few MPs or the Prince of Wales speak up for farming communities and villages.

Let us not forget that the majority of the electorate are urban dwellers and therefore carry a greater voice than the minority who reside in the sticks.

Of course, hunting is considered and portrayed as a toff's sport. And culturally we now shy away from good manners, civility and the speakers of 1940s accentless BBC English.

Hunters are harangued. You don't see the same vilification of multinationals who trade with Borneo farmers who cut down rain forests and destroy the Orangutans' habitat, just so that palm oil is cheap and easily available for food products and women's lipstick.

Likewise you don't see the same media attention of chemical pollutants and intensive farming which has occurred in the UK since the 1970's which has resulted in pesticides and rapid urbanisation that has devastated our wildlife.

From what I have seen and read our environment is at crisis point. I'm not just talking about the planet, I mean right here and now in the British Isles. Over 75 per cent of butterflies are in decline and insects are generally disappearing. Half of British bird numbers have disappeared during the last few decades and it is believed that hedgehogs could die out by 2025.

The irony here is that the exception to this destructive trend has been on land that is used for hunting and shooting. I would suggest that land owners, farmers and the majority of rural dwellers want to help the sustainability of the land, and it is for this reason that I would not ban hunting.

If Mr Heath's figures suggest nine out of ten people support a ban, maybe he'd like to take a census of our rural communities.

C Stephens, Pucklechurch.