PROFESSOR David Bellamy possesses the wise old head of an experienced tribal elder and one who needs to be listened to, as politics is inevitably a destructive intruder into the world he inhabits.

The right to roam is a freedom to cherish – but I had a sense of more national freedom in the late Forties and Fifties.

David Cameron’s government is a believer in big business interests.

When Prof Bellamy warns us against a sell off of forest and woodland (Echo, Jan 20), and therefore of our right to roam freely within them, please listen because your freedoms are on the line.

I, for one, don’t want to see some of our most beautiful countryside sold off to the highest bidder.

CS Simons, Bishop Auckland.