WILL Richards (You Say, October 4) suggests that the foxhunting lobby had hijacked the recent Countryside March.

This suggestion has been well spun by a certain political party, but is simply not true.

I was there, and can assure him that this was not the case.

It was a cry from the heart of the countryside that needs to be heard.

The Friday before I had been at a major conference at the NEC near Birmingham, reviewing long-term strategies for the whole West Midlands region. Transport was high on the agenda.

The problems initially identified were the M6, congestion charging in the cities, the Midlands Metro system, and the location of extra airport runway capacity.

It should not have been left to me, as a Member of the European Parliament, to highlight the urgency of transport problems within the Shires.

There was a sudden if sheepish realisation among those present that none of them had given this a moment's thought.

We will not find solutions to the crisis in the countryside until those in authority first recognise there is a problem. If the March achieves only that, it will have been worth every step.

PHILIP BUSHILL-MATTHEWS (MEP),

European Parliament, Brussels,

(and Conservative Office, Sansome Place, Worcester).