Rob Gray, currently Editor of Shooting Times, will join the Countryside Alliance in April in a new role as Campaigns Director with responsibility for the Alliance’s four campaigns: Angling, Hunting, Shooting and Food, Environment and Rural Affairs.

Rob has been Editor of Shooting Times since 2001 and previously spent three years as Editor of Shooting Gazette.

Simon Hart, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: ‘Rob’s appointment will take all our campaigns forward and significantly strengthen operations across our entire agenda.

‘The Alliance has always argued that country sports and rural issues are inextricably linked and cannot be dealt with in isolation. The countryside is not divided up by partitions - policies which affect one part of the rural community will inevitably impact on others.

‘To address new legislation being brought forward by this Government, and the precedents set by the laws it has passed, we have created this new role to bring the work of all our campaigns closer together’.