SIR: I write with regard to the report in the B.E.N. entitled "This march was a front for hunting fraternity" - which was so inaccurate to be laughable.

The march was not a front for anyone. However it was organised by the Countryside Alliance to demonstrate the real feeling of the countryside to Michael Foster's Bill and their opposition to it, as well as being a medium to demonstrate their discontent at the way the countryside and the people who live and work there, are being treated.

Mr. Meagher is obviously a man who cares deeply about animals. However his feelings for people are obviously not as deep, judging by the graphic and demeaning way he described those who follow fieldsports and disagree with his views.

Unfortunately for him those who disagree with his views are in the majority and took to the streets of London en masse to show this. There were a total of 2033 coaches, 30 specially chartered trains and 46 trains with extra carriages on board, along with twenty aircraft used to transport what the Metropolitan Police have estimated at 300,000 people to show their opposition to this Bill.

Finally, contrary to Mr Meagher's prediction the sands of time are not against us. Never have so many people protested on one issue and Foster's Bill is not going to receive government time. And it is therefore doomed to the failure it justly deserves, thanks to the efforts of the many who oppose it.

A J H Pilkington, Lancashire County Chairman, Countryside Alliance, (Address supplied).

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.