SIR — I refer to your report 'Quantock Hills Battle Commences' (Free Press, July 4), in which you presented the case put forward by Friends of Quantock regarding the proposals to reduce our AONB's funding. All the towns and villages in and around the Quantock Hills need to be mobilised to give the AONB and Friends of Quantock maximum support as they go in to joust on our behalf. I say on our behalf because the wellbeing of the towns and villages in and around the Quantocks will be seriously affected if Somerset County Council is allowed to reduce the AONB's funding by 90 per cent. Yes, 90 per cent! Why? As Friends' chairman Alan Hughes says: "The Quantock Hills AONB is one of Somerset's greatest natural assets." We know that they attract tourism, generate business activity and deliver important economic benefits to local communities. These benefits are the result of its open summits, its wooded combes and heather-clad upland, its agricultural fringe and coastal edge. It is these, combined with panoramic views, a sense of wilderness, isolation and solitude, which give the hills their special character and which bring great pleasure and economic benefits to all those who live in or nearby, as well as those who visit them. It is this asset which the AONB partnership protects on our behalf. I know that their five-year plan was approved by the Quantock Hills Joint Advisory Committee with an already extremely tight budget. Should the county council's reduction be implemented the plan will be unworkable; tthe AONB management team will be unable to do the job for which they have been established. That means in turn that the most important asset in the region runs a high risk of deterioration. In time it will no longer be an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with substantial negative outcomes for our communities. Your readership needs to be aware of the danger which such a reduction in funding represents and has the chance of expressing its view to the county council before it meets on July 25. Julian Anderson, Bicknoller.