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The Countryside Alliance has been actively campaigning against a members’ resolution which proposed to ban lawful hunting activities on National Trust land. 

When the voting results were announced at the Trust’s AGM on 30th October, at which the Alliance’s voice was heard during the debate on the future of trail hunting, the motion was carried. Just 115,000 votes had been cast throughout the voting period (76,816 votes for the motion to ban hunting activities and 38,184 votes against the motion), which represents less than 2% of the national membership of the organisation. 

The result of the vote is not binding and the tiny proportion of members engaging with the issue does not indicate that trail hunting is a matter which is of any interest, or concern, to Trust members. It also confirms our findings throughout the course of the relatively short campaign, where it became clear that most see this issue as an irrelevant distraction.

You can be assured that the Alliance will continue to work with the Trust to make the case for the continuation of hunting activities on Trust land before any policy decision is announced. We will ensure the Trust carefully considers the implications of banning a lawful activity while reflecting on the small percentage of their members which engaged with the vote and also taking into consideration the wishes of the original donors of property entrusted to the charity, many of whom were great supporters of hunting.

We thank all those who engaged with this campaign to protect the future of hunting with hounds and hope you will continue to support our work and future campaigns.