I WRITE in response to the call by Jan Harrigan for support for a ban on fishing in Bewdley town centre.

While the work that Wychbold Swan Rescue Centre is to be applauded and supported, we need to think carefully before bringing in yet more restrictions on people's personal choice and freedom.

I offer a number of observations: l Use of lead shot of the sizes indicated by research to be causing lead poisoning in swans was banned by law in 1987. It has not been available in shops in the UK since then and acceptable substitutes are now in use.

l Lead shot of up to size 8 is still permitted on the basis that the original research did not implicate it in lead poisoning - such small particles pass quickly through the swan and are not retained in the gizzard where they might be absorbed into the bloodstream.

l Angling pressure on the Severn in Bewdley is comparatively light except in midsummer and, in any case,most of this fishing is using methods which do not require the use of lead shot.

l The Environment Agency (who should be able to tell) say that there is no evidence of significant quantities of lead shot in the sediments in the Severn in Bewdley.

l The swan population in Bewdley is highly variable in size and is mobile. Many of the birds spend much of their time in areas of the river away from the town and probably venture into fields to graze on grass and crops.

To summarise, the Bewdley swan population is not confined to Bewdley. Birds spend much of their time outside the area of the proposed ban. There is no evidence of significant lead shot deposits in Bewdley, suggesting that swans are obtaining this lead elsewhere. Local use of lead shot in angling is very limited, so the amount of lead shot entering the river is likely to be minuscule.

Hence there would be no benefit or justification for a ban on angling in any part of Bewdley on grounds of causing lead poisoning in swans.

Is it not possible that some of the swans with apparent symptoms of lead poisoning are suffering from some other illness, given that the diet of many urban swans consists of bread, chips and other unhealthy foods and that these birds frequent polluted areas in the vicinity of storm sewer overflows, and road gullies carrying all the residues of car tyres, brake linings, anti-freeze, oil etc.

If these birds really do have lead poisoning, where are they getting the lead from?

Answers to these questions please, so that we are not subjected to another product of woolly thinking, limited evidence and bad science.

GRAHAM WILLIAMSON Bewdley