Letter: Justice for poets at Arts Council

Sir: I'm glad to say that my remark to your arts correspondent that the Arts Council "does not give a shit about the survival of poetry"(report, 14 January) seems to be out of date.

Thanks to Marianne Macdonald's article, I've had discussions with Andrew Motion, the new chairman of the Arts Council Literature Panel, in the BBC 2 Newsnight studios.

He assured me that he was working hard on schemes to help finance poetry and individual poets - most probably from lottery funds.

This is a very welcome change of policy for the Arts Council, and Andrew Motion, a man of great gifts and integrity, deserves the support of all poets and lovers of poetry.

ADRIAN MITCHELL

London NW5