It is a money-spinner for the extremely wealthy and an expensive pastime for other rich players

We have just returned from cycling coast to coast. Spending two days in the northern Pennines, we saw a hen harrier, a kestrel and a buzzard (“The Inglorious Twelfth?”, News). Sadly, though, the villages are struggling to maintain a community shop/post office and a seven-day pub.

One day, we listened in as a cafe owner explained who owned the land and what it was used for. Apparently the moors were purchased two years ago by a German hedge-fund manager. He had visited once but mostly it involved wealthy people being flown in by helicopter, staying at his shooting lodge.

They paid £20,000 for a week’s shooting and residence. It is completely disingenuous for Scottish Land and Estates to claim that this “field sport” is currently worth £155m to tourism – not to the local population it isn’t.

We saw many red grouse as well as a huge number of rabbits. I was surprised how much rabbit road kill there was on such lightly travelled roads until we realised that the sheer numbers of rabbits meant that statistically there were bound to be this number.

Where were the foxes and raptors to deal with this?

Three years ago, we stayed in the North Yorkshire moors. Curiously, although we saw many red grouse, we did not see one raptor, not even a buzzard. The only rabbits we saw were whole, dead specimens lying on paths and open countryside with no evidence as to how they came by their deaths.

Can we call time on this dishonest claim that the hunting/shooting fraternity is concerned with conservation? Rather, it is a money-spinner for the extremely wealthy and an expensive pastime for other wealthy players.

Sarah and Rob James

Monmouth

I was delighted to read that wildlife groups have launched a petition to act against landowners and their estates who have been illegally killing raptors. A number of years ago, I, together with two friends, had permission to erect a photographic hide at a short-eared owl’s nest on a grouse moor in North Yorkshire. However, the resident gamekeeper watched us each time we used the hide. One morning, we found that the young owls had been stamped on and the parents shot.

The high court ruling, which allows buzzards to be shot under licence in order to protect young pheasants, virtually condones such behaviour towards raptors. There are so many pheasants that a large number of them end up in landfill sites. At least buzzards eat them!

Gordon L Woodroffe

Sinnington

York

It is good news that the National Forest project is doing well in revitalising the former mining areas of Leicestershire (“How millions of trees put life back into a broken-hearted landscape,” In Focus).

What is not so good is the failure of all concerned to get the Ivanhoe railway line that runs through the area reopened. The latest study, commissioned by Leicestershire county council, produced a capital cost for the scheme of £35m, subsequently inflated by 66% to follow government guidelines.

What is interesting about these government inflation tools is the failure to apply similar processes to the forecast passenger numbers when just about every previous rail reopening scheme study has woefully underestimated actual usage when the lines did open, the Robin Hood line in Nottinghamshire and Waverley route in Scotland being particular examples.

I was a regular visitor to the area last year and can testify to the chronic traffic congestion. A coherent transport policy is desperately needed that sees the benefit of this vital line linking Leicester to Burton-on-Trent and serving the seven proposed new stations throughout the National Forest area.

Dafydd Whyles

Retford

Nottinghamshire