DR Peter Alma (Your Letters, April 15) was commissioned by the Conservators to write the Conservators Management Plan for the Hills for 2000-2005. It is not surprising that he agrees with his own recommendations.

As a Conservator, I am not opposed to the use of sheep to manage the grassland but I am worried about the eventual cost to the Malvern taxpayer.

The grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund runs out in a couple of years. If the Malvern Hills are "of national importance for their biodiversity and landscape value," as Dr Alma asserts, the cost of maintaining the Hills should be funded nationally and not just by the residents of six parishes.

I was also thoroughly depressed by the enormously long list of organisations cited by Dr Alma as supporters of the scheme. He mentions the Country Landowners Association, the Farming and Rural Conservation Agency, the Malvern Hills AONB Office, English Nature and the Countryside Agency. For good measure he could have included English Heritage, DEFRA, the Council for the Protection of Rural England and the countryside departments of the county councils.

What do all these people really do? One or two are independent pressure groups but for the most part they are paid by the taxpayers and spend the taxpayers' money. Do they do anything apart from writing plans and reading each other's reports? During the foot and mouth crisis they ran around like headless chickens until the army had to be called in. Isn't it about time the Government got on with implementing the Haskins Report and slimmed down this plethora of busybody advisers?

ALISTAIR MACMILLAN, Alexandra Lane, Malvern.