COACHLOADS of countryside enthusiasts from Wiltshire will travel to London next Sunday to campaign for rural rights.

More than 143,000 people nationally have registered for the Countryside Alliance's Liberty and Livelihood March on September 22.

Ken Frewer, of Upton Scudamore, near Warminster, is travelling to the capital with 100 people from the surrounding area.

He said: "I'm interested in the whole problem of the countryside. I feel that it is being neglected by the present Government.

"We may be a small minority, but we are a small minority with responsibility and they must take our views into account. The number of people on the march shows the massive support the issue has."

March director James Stanford said: "This march is about the right of a significant proportion of the British population to play a consensual role in any decisions Parliament may take regarding its future, and certainly not just about hunting.

"Who is listening to rural Britain while its farming suffers, its landscape is under threat and its rural communities dwindle?

"We've been across the UK promoting a march that will voice the most important rural message in recent times: now we must speak with the unified voice of both town and country. This is the moment for solidarity if we wish to ensure a future for our rural way of life."

Beacons will be lit in Wiltshire on Monday as part of a national chain promoting the march.