LET us hope that Herefordshire and Worcestershire councillors watched the excellent BBC2 programme Harvest, which explained the basic workings of British farmers and fruit growers.

If they did, they would at last realise the importance of polytunnels for fruit production, resulting in a massive reduction in imports, and increased prosperity for Hereford and Worcester farmers. Some 70,000 tonnes of strawberries are grown in polytunnels, and 300 tonnes of polytunnel cherries in Herefordshire alone with workers earning up to £950 per week. They live in caravans on farms, with local British workers scorning the work as ‘too hard’ or ‘too early a start’.

So farmers have to employ Eastern Europeans to do the work, or the fruit will rot on the trees.

W F KERSWELL

Picklescott

Church Stretton