YOU ask what the Government could do for Herefordshire.

Herefordshire is a rural county and will probably always be so.

To boost its economy, therefore, the Government needs to reestablish the importance of land because, as Mark Twain said, “they’re not making it anymore”.

They should get rid of Boris Johnson’s “one size fits all” – it doesn’t. Get rid of his “build, build, build” which has imposed totally unrealistic housing targets on the county and replace it with Rishi Sunak’s preference for building “where necessary and almost never on green-field sites”.

As well as this, get rid of HS2, saving capital, in favour of developing a more cost-effective rail network allowing affordable travel across the UK (rather than providing a means for the very rich to get from Birmingham to London 20 minutes faster).

OTHER LETTERS:

The Government should encourage investment in land-based projects, notably agriculture and horticulture, which are essential to food security, but also renewable energy schemes, forestry, textile production, eco-tourism, leisure, health and well-being enterprises, and, of course, habitat restoration, all of which will contribute to zero-carbon emissions.

It should also lean on the Environment Agency, water companies and other relevant bodies to clear up water pollution from every source and prevent its recurrence.

Funding to local authorities should take into account acreage as well as population to reflect the high dependency of the rural population on having adequate roads.

To pay for all this? How about legalising cannabis but making it subject to the same controls as tobacco and alcohol and taxing it heavily?

We might even grow it – legally – in Herefordshire! Just a few ideas for starters.

JULIA EVANS 

Lyonshall, near Kington