Madam, As the Master responsible for The Radnor and West Herefordshire Hunt on New Year's Day, I would like to offer my sincere apologies to Mr Mark Balcombe, (Letters, January 9), for any inconvenience or distress we may have caused him and his family when our hounds strayed on to his property.

We very much regret the incident and would like to assure him that every effort will be made to ensure this does not happen again.

Richard Marfell,

Upper Wall End, Monkland.