Letter: Hedge row

You take too narrow a view of hedgerows ("...8,000 miles vanish each year", 27 October). Removal results from development and new roads as well asfarm management. There is also a difference between a hedgerow "lost" because it grows into a line of trees and one that is "removed" or grubbed-up. Statistics indicate 800km more hedges are planted by farmers and landowners every year than are removed.

Regulation is not enough. An imaginative and well-supported package of measures is needed to maintain hedgerows as part of thriving rural businesses.

E J H Cameron

Country Landowners Association, London SW1