HUNT supporters protesting against a proposed ban on their sport greeted Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael when he arrived in Thirsk to throw his weight behind a special event underlining the value of Yorkshire market towns.

About 30 protestors who want a Bill to outlaw hunting kept out of the Queen's Speech, which describes the Government's programme of future legislation, gathered at the entrance to Thirsk racecourse last Friday for the launch of the Action for Market Towns regional network.

They carried placards protesting against what they called an unjust law, but they did not get the chance to speak to Mr Michael because his ministerial Volvo swept past them on its way to the event attended by representatives of local authorities and other organisations from all parts of Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire County Council has joined forces with the Suffolk-based organisation Action for Market Towns and partners in east, west and south Yorkshire to launch the new regional network.

North Yorkshire has taken the lead in developing the network, which is designed to bring people from market towns together to share problems and experiences as they try to attract businesses and customers. Helping such communities to thrive is a key objective of the county council.

Council leader Coun John Weighell, who represents the market town of Bedale, said: "It is desperately important that we try to make market towns more attractive.

"The great challenge facing the rural community is firstly how to bring in business and secondly how to keep the customers spending money within their local communities.

"This is an important event which will launch a series of events and actions to support our market towns, which are so important to the region and especially rural areas such as North Yorkshire."

David Fletcher, chairman of Action for Market Towns, said: "I believe in the importance of market towns as service centres for rural areas.

"As a Yorkshireman I'm pleased to see the market towns in this region getting together to network and enhance opportunities for the future."

Thirsk is already reaping the benefits of a three-year £340,000 revitalisation programme approved by the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward through its market towns initiative.

The tourist information centre has been moved to a more central site and a £110,000 resource centre with upgraded adult learning services has been opened by the Learning and Skills Council, the development agency being a key partner.

Mr Michael told delegates last Friday that the Rural White Paper of 2000 had recognised the importance of market towns in helping rural communities to thrive and had underlined the Government's commitment to enabling them to manage changing circumstances.

Since then £37m - twice the figure envisaged when the White Paper was published - had been given to regional development agencies and the Countryside Agency, with added funding from the public and private sectors, to help regeneration in more than 200 market towns including Thirsk.

Mr Michael said rural areas were rapidly changing and were no longer dominated by agriculture, which now accounted for less than 10pc of local business.

Between 20pc and 25pc of the population lived in villages and rural towns which contained 30pc of all the businesses in England, many of them small, contributing 25pc of the Gross Domestic Product.

Hunt supporters who had gathered outside, however, maintained that Mr Michael had a conflict of interest.

James Bates, a spokesman for the Countryside Alliance, said: "It is hypocritical of Mr Michael.

"We have absolutely full support for market town initiatives bringing investment and money into local communities.

"We don't like the fact that Mr Michael is speaking here, on one hand advocating bringing money into the local economy while on the other hand quite a few people here would be losing their homes and jobs because of his actions in driving forward a hunting ban.

"It would affect not only people directly connected with hunting but country vets and clothing makers and retailers."

The supporters, who included representatives of the York and Ainsty and Bedale hunts, dispersed after what police described as a good natured protest.

The new regional market towns network has a programme of events planned throughout next year, culminating in the Yorkshire and Humberside annual conference at Wetherby in March 2005