Gamekeeper and college lecturer Liam Stokes joins the Countryside Alliance as head of shooting

The Countryside Alliance is pleased to announce that its shooting team will be boosted next year by the addition of Liam Stokes, as head of shooting.

As Britain's largest rural campaigning organisation the Countryside Alliance ensures the voice of its shooting members is heard in Westminster, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Brussels, on such issues as lead shot and firearms regulation. Liam will take over the day to day running of the campaign in the Alliance's London office working with Northern-based director of shooting and moorland specialist Adrian Blackmore.

Liam has taught gamekeeping and wildlife management at Wiltshire College Lackham for the past six and half years, running the Lackham Shoot, a unique enterprise in which students manage beats, plan drives, host guests and run shoot days. He also oversaw a grey partridge reintroduction, a brown trout recovery project and initiated a crucian carp conservation project on the estate.

Liam said: "I have dedicated my career to educating young people about the social, economic and ecological good that shooting sports bring to society and the countryside. I now intend to use all the modern media tools at our disposal to attack disinformation and junk science wherever it is used to attack shooting, and broadcast to politicians and the public the tremendous benefits of all forms of our sport."

And Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance said: "We are very pleased to welcome Liam to the team. He brings new skills and fresh thinking to our campaigns and I am sure that our members, and all the other shooting organisations we work so closely with, will be pleased that he will be working for the future of shooting."