LANDOWNERS are being urged to stand up for their right to choose whether to allow hunting on their property.

With the Government still signalling its intention to introduce a bill which would ban all hunting, the Country Landowners Association is asking members to make clear to the politicians that they find the prospect of a ban on hunting totally unacceptable.

Three Counties CLA regional director Geoffrey Hopton said: "Hunting and field sports make a significant and much needed contribution to the depressed rural economy and an even bigger contribution to landscape conservation. Many of our most valued landscape features only survive because they have been conserved, managed and cared for to provide cover for game."

He pointed out: "Hunts also provide a valuable service to hard-pressed farmers by controlling foxes and removing fallen stock and they are often the social glue which binds rural communities together, the meeting place for people who live and work in the countryside and can otherwise lead isolated lives."

Mr Hopton said there were, of course, CLA members who could not support hunting with hounds and it was their right to hold that opinion, but the CLA was determined to fight to ensure that all landowners could continue to exercise their right to decide whether or not to allow hunting on their land, while the Government concentrated on issues like rural employment, housing and the future of farming - things that would make a real difference to the lives of people living in the countryside.

Mr Hopton added: "It is time for individual landowners to make their views known to politicians more forcibly and to protect their ancient traditions before they are lost for ever."