LETTERS: Hunting Act 'still alive' despite High Court ruling

Dear Editor - Contrary to what the Countryside Alliance would like us to believe, today’s judgment on the Hunting Act from the High Court is in fact a very positive step forward in ensuring illegal hunters are brought to justice.
Instead of being a ‘new blow to the Hunting Act’, this will clarify the law and clear up any confusion around what is legal hunting and what is illegal hunting.
There is absolutely no suggestion anywhere in the judgment that the Act is unenforceable.
More importantly, this will clear the way for a backlog of cases to pass through the courts which will no doubt see the number of prosecutions rise even further.
The League has always believed the law to be sound and effective and with any law the problem is with enforcement not with the law itself.
Testament to this is the fact nearly 100 MPs have signed a new Early Day Motion calling for better enforcement of the Hunting Act.
Seventy five per cent of the people in the UK do not want to see a return to cruelty when killing wild animals for fun was legal.
It is time the Countryside Alliance et al accepted this and stopped complaining about a law which prevents them enjoying their so-called sport.

Douglas Batchelor
Chief Executive
League Against Cruel Sports
New Sparling House
Holloway Hill

Godalming

Large crowds turn out for traditional Boxing Day hunt meet

MINEHEAD Harriers traditional Boxing Day was switched for the first time this year to the town’s seafront and took place in the freezing cold yesterday.
Several hundred hunt supporters turned out for the occasion, which was held outside the Beach Hotel.
Despite a hunting ban introduced four years ago, meets by the Harriers and other hunts across West Somerset have continued to prove to be just as popular, if not more so.
Harriers secretary Tim Holt said following the sale by Barry Richards of the town centre Wellington Hotel, where the Boxing Day meet had been held for many years, it was decided to host it instead at the Beach Hotel, which Mr Richards still owned.
Mr Holt said the change was hugely popular with a larger than ever public attendance.
He said: “There must have been one of the biggest crowds I have ever seen at a meet and it was all good-natured.
“None of the ‘antis’ were there to cause any nonsense and we had a great send-off.”
Harriers vice-president Mike Padgett said: “It was tremendous to see the support we get from the ordinary public of West Somerset.
“It just goes to show what an important part the hunt plays in the local community and how valued it is as a part of everybody’s lives.”
The West Somerset Vale hunt met in Nether Stowey and also saw larger than usual crowds gather at The Cross to see them ride out, bringing traffic in the village centre to a halt as they did so.
The Countryside Alliance said Boxing Day meets across the country had generally enjoyed their largest turnouts since the hunting ban was introduced.
Countryside Alliance spokesman Tim Bonner, who leads a campaign to repeal the hunting ban, said: “There seems to be a very large turnout at all the meets.
“There is a feeling that people are coming out just to support their local hunt and the campaign for the repeal of the act. It is a very positive feeling across the country.”

Trio reach regional finals of countryside business awards

THREE West Somerset businesses have reached the regional finals of this year’s prestigious Countryside Alliance Awards.
The awards celebrate the characters, skills, traditions, and enterprise of the countryside through the people who work so hard to make it tick.
Countryside Alliance regional director Alison Hawes said: “There are some cracking finalists in this line up and I am very confident that there are a few who are in with a chance of going all the way in the all-UK final.
“This list represents the best of the region’s produce, skills, enterprise and community spirit.
“Choosing a winner in each category is going to be very hard.”
Among the finalists from West Somerset is the George Inn, Brompton Regis, which has been nominated for the Daily Telegraph ‘Best Traditional Business Award’.
With the village shop in Brompton Regis having to close earlier this year because of the loss of its Post Office, pub landlords Paul and Trish Randell decided to open a shop in their skittle alley.
It meant elderly people faced with having to drive into Dulverton could continue to obtain local deliveries, newspaper rounds, and locally-sourced food.
Another award finalist is the Winsford Stores, run by Paul and Jenny Lawson and nominated in the ‘Best Village Shop or Post Office’ category for commitment to keeping a vital village business going.
Despite the threat of closure of their Post Office, floods, and a bad tourist season, the couple invested in the refurbishment of the stores and continued to deliver a friendly, helpful, and much needed service in the village.
Nominated in the ‘Rural Enterprise Award’ category was Stockland Lovell Equestrian, in Fiddington.
Owners Michael and Hill have developed a 1,200-acre dairy farm into one of the top equestrian facilities in the country while continuing to milk 250 cows.
They host two major events a year, run schooling events, clinics, lectures, and demonstrations, host Pony Club and Riding Club camps, and provide facilities for individuals to spend quality time with their horses.
In addition, they have their own tack shop and treat their volunteers exceptionally well with ample food and drink supplied, as well as vouchers which may be used for schooling or in the tack shop.
Regional judging in the competition takes place between now and January, with the regional winners announced shortly afterwards.
The overall UK winners will be announced at a House of Lords reception next March.

• Our photographs show (TOP) Stockland Lovell owners Lavinia and Michael Hill, with their sons Martin and Mark and dogs Bob and Marley, and (BELOW) Winsford Stores. Photos submitted.
  

LETTER: Royal Mail puts profits before people

Dear Editor - News that the Royal Mail has doubled its profits over the last six months while over 1,500 post offices are to be shut down will incense your readers.
Royal Mail’s round of closures was based on economic viability, highlighting the hypocrisy of this £177 million profit.
The Countryside Alliance has campaigned hard for the thousands of threatened branches.
A lack of economic viability should never have been the main reason for closures.
Post Offices form the hearts of their communities and many isolated and elderly people will be stranded without them.
Royal Mail should perhaps consider that Post Offices are about people, not profits.
Simon Hart
Chief Executive
Countryside Alliance
367 Kennington Road
London
SE11 4PT

Political award for defending country way of life

AN organisation which has championed the lifestyles of people on Exmoor and other rural areas has won a prestigious television award.
The Countryside Alliance, born out of the fight against the hunting ban and the effects of Foot and Mouth Disease, was named ‘the most inspiring political personality’ of the past 10 years in a Channel 4 News political awards programme.
It won the title for ‘its campaigns against the fox hunting ban and its defence of rural life’.
Founding president Baronnes Mallalieu QC and chairman Kate Hoey, MP, accepted the award from actor Jeremy Irons.
Baronnes Mallalieu quoted Shakespeare in describing her own Government as being guilty of the ‘insolence of office’.
She warned future administrations, of whatever colour, that there was ‘unfinished business’ in the countryside.
The ‘inspiring’ category was a special award in the annual political awards to mark Channel 4 News’ 10th anniversary.
Other shortlisted candidates included Tony Blair and Ken Livingstone.
Countryside Alliance chief executive Simon Hart said: “This win is a great shot in the arm for the Countryside Alliance at the start of 2008.
“It is clear that we were shortlisted primarily because of the hunting issue and our vocal campaigning style.
“Our ongoing tenacity and support for the hunting community will remain at the core of what we do, but Channel 4 also acknowledged our broader reach, naming our ‘defence of rural life’.
“The Countryside Alliance believes that when it comes to the defence of that rural life, it is ‘all of us or none of us’.
“This belief in unity makes the victory all the sweeter, the acclaim is for all of us.
“Everybody who has marched, signed petitions, written to their MP, volunteered or worked for the Alliance, and stoically continued to defend country sports and the rural way of life for the past decade can rightly claim this award as their own.”
The award was voted for by telephone, text, and email to decide the winner.
Spokesman for the Minehead Harriers, Mike Padgett, said: “We are so pleased that the Countryside Alliance has won this prestigious award from Channel 4 for fighting our corner, the fox hunting ban and its defence of rural life.”

• Our photograph shows Kate Hoey and Simon Hart, of the Countryside Alliance, with their Channel 4 award. Photo submitted.

Judge overturns first Exmoor hunting conviction

THE first huntsman to be prosecuted under the Hunting Act, Tony Wright, of the Exmoor Foxhounds, has had his conviction overturned on appeal.
Mr Wright, aged 53, had been found guilty in August of last year by magistrates sitting in Barnstaple of breaching section one of the Act while leading the foxhounds at Drybridge, in Devon.
The prosecution was brought by the League Against Cruel Sports, which said a hunt on April 29, 2005, allowed the hounds a ‘prolonged period of pursuit’ of a fox on two occasions.
Under the Act, all that is lawful is the exercising of hounds, chasing a scent trail, and flushing out foxes to be shot.
Mr Wright, of Exmoor Kennels, Simonsbath, was fined £500 by the magistrates and ordered to pay £250 costs.
But now, at an appeal heard in Exeter Crown Court on Friday, November 30, the conviction has been quashed.
Judge Graham Cottle allowed the appeal and said he was satisfied Mr Wright reasonably believed he had put in place safeguards which he thought would ensure compliance with the Act.
The Exmoor is one of only two fox hunts to have been prosecuted successfully.
More people have been convicted of hunting rats under the Act than have been found guilty of illegal fox hunting.
Countryside Alliance chief executive Simon Hart said: “This verdict is an absolute vindication of Tony Wright and the Exmoor Foxhounds and another nail in the coffin of the Hunting Act.
“While we celebrate this judgment, however, we must not forget why an innocent man faced with a vindictive private prosecution has had to spend over two years and two court cases to clear his name.
“The Hunting Act is not only a pointless and prejudiced piece of legislation, it is also a very bad law.
“If the courts cannot be sure what is hunting and what is not, how on earth can anybody else.
“Only by scrapping the Act can we ensure that other innocent people will not be persecuted and today’s result adds to the clear case for its repeal.”
The case has cost the League more than £100,000 to pursue, after Avon and Somerset Police refused to prosecute based on the available evidence.
Mr Wright was ‘delighted’ with the appeal result and said afterwards the Hunting Act was a ‘very difficult law to interpret’ and ‘probably not very well written for people like myself to understand’.
For the League, Mike Hobday, head of its prosecution unit, said: “We shall be taking urgent legal advice about the prospects of appealing on some of the findings of law.”
Mr Hobday described the appeal result as ‘deeply surprising’ and said he was ‘shocked and disappointed’ at the legal interpretation of the Hunting Act.

• Our photograph shows an image from a video of an Exmoor Foxhounds hunt used by the League in its prosecution. Photo submitted.