Letter: Heal our ruined countryside

Heal our ruined countryside

Sir: Let him who is without subsidy cast the first stone. The Rev David E Flavell writes: "Every other business [than farming] has to make a living without subsidy and hand-outs" (Letters, 11 July).

I certainly subsidise the wages and running costs of Ripon diocese. The buses that pass his door in Peterlee are subsidised by people like me in the deep rural areas of County Durham that were forsaken by buses and trains before 1974.

If farming didn't receive subsidies the real price of food would be payable by the reverend gentleman.

PHIL HUGHES

Bowes, Co Durham