SOME constituency representatives in Parliament are elected to offices which add considerably to their work loads, and the member for Thirsk and Malton is a prime example.

Anne McIntosh took the chair of the EFRA Select Committee from Michael Jack, who was a hard act to follow, and she has excelled on behalf of the rural community and food production.

Her constituents should be proud of this, as I am sure any thinking farmers and landowners will be. Hers is a very rural constituency dependant on the multi-use land economy which occupies about 85 per cent of the area.

Anne is prepared to find against some policies proposed by DEFRA, not least policies that fail to create the sustainable countryside they promise.

I have appeared before her committee on a number of occasions representing either the tenanted sector or upland issues, and I can assure people it is inquisitorial and leaves no ground unturned.

I’m not a political animal and to me it is people who make things happen, not the politics brought into our daily lives. Anne McIntosh is serving not only her constituents well in fighting for what is needed, but also she is doing a tremendous amount for all aspects of the rural community nationally.

Mike Keeble, East Witton, Wensleydale.