COACHLOADS of people from Westmorland will be among those converging on London to take part in a mass protest march against the Government's treatment of rural affairs., writes Countryside Reporter Victoria Clark.

Already at least 30 coaches are booked to take protesters from South Lakeland and Furness down the M6 to take part in the September 22 Countryside Alliance march.

With 150,000 people already registered to march, and at least twice as many expected on the day, organisers are confident the number of protesters will top the 300,000 who attended the mass march of 1998, which was the largest civil liberty demonstration ever staged in the UK.

The aim of the march is to demand that the Government defends the right of rural people to live their lives responsibly in the way they choose, including their right to hunt if they want.

It is being held in September in order to show the strength of feeling against a possible hunting ban before the Queen's speech in November, which is expected to reveal when new hunting legislation will be introduced.

The protest is also designed to coincide with the last few weeks of consultation on the sport being carried out by Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michaels.

Kate Nicholson, of Coniston Foxhounds, has booked ten coaches to transport 500 protesters, and says she is struggling to book another, with coaches few and far between.

Mrs Nicholson's husband, Michael, is the Coniston huntsman, and the family have had the threat of a possible hunting ban hanging over them since he was appointed, although she said the march was about far more than just hunting.

"Hunting is the thin end of the wedge really," she said.

"I think rural people in general have simply had enough of this Government.

" If they are not going to do anything for us and help the countryside they should stop inferring in things they do not understand and would be detrimental to the countryside."

Tom Fell, regional director of the alliance, said many people living in rural communities felt they were being sidelined by the Government.

"There will be people there who don't hunt, shoot or fish, or aren't farmers, but just feel they are being overlooked and sidelined and are not prepared to put up with it any longer."

He added: "I think that there are many, many people who think we are a tiny minority, that there are just a few who follow country sports.

"They will be amazed to find just how many there are of us and we don't fit their stereo-typical image of hunting people - ordinary people like them-selves who happen to have a different interest in their life."

Also taking part in the march will be Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Collins, who said: "It's a shame that many farmers and rural dwellers from Cumbria have been forced to want to again give up their weekend to march in the streets of London against the Government's continued indifference to problems in rural areas like South Lakeland."