Local authority interference with rural activities

Mo Metcalf-Fisher looks at some of the rural activities put at risk by local authority interference and what the Countryside Alliance is doing to counter it in this article from My Countryside magazine.

In the last issue of My Countryside we put a spotlight on our efforts to stop the latest campaign by animal rights activists to lobby local councils into implementing nonsensical bans on meat and dairy.

Local authorities, from parish to county councils, offer a gateway to many a niche cause and, unlike the Houses of Parliament, their agendas are much less predictable and more difficult to actively monitor due to their sheer number.

Readers may remember that in the 1980s, left wing urban councils climbed over one another to declare themselves 'nuclear-free zones', regardless of the fact that nothing resembling a nuclear reactor had ever been near their inner-city council wards. Trail hunting has now also found itself tangled up in similarly bizarre, localised campaigns, with animal rights groups using sympathetic councillors to submit motions to have the activity banned on council-owned land knowing full well, in most cases, that hunts do not operate on a single acre of it.

In Peterborough, for example, councillors there voted by a small margin to ban trail hunting, despite no hunt entering city land.

The Alliance subsequently spearheaded a campaign to oppose a follow-up motion proposing a ban on the Festival of Hunting, which takes place annually on the city limits. With a new council in place, we were able to help defeat it in a hefty blow to LACS.

Likewise, in Labour-controlled Bolsover, Alliance campaigning efforts centred on the fact that the council land in question consisted of the odd allotment and a handful of car parks, hardly typical hunt country. The motion was subsequently abandoned.

Upon its creation, the newly-formed North Northamptonshire unitary authority was also targeted by the same motion. It too was beaten after an intensive, localised campaign.

In September, the leader of Cornwall Council decided against accepting a petition which called on her to ban all of the county's five hunts from accessing land they own. Despite the petition containing signatures from as far away as South Africa, its demands were considered and put before the council for debate. The Alliance contacted councillors including Conservative, Independent and Mebyon Kernow representatives to make it clear just how important the hunting community is regarded locally, taking questions and providing the relevant facts and figures.

And like the grinches that tried to steal Christmas, an attempt by antis to ban the hugely popular Boxing Day meet in Tiverton was also stopped in its tracks after the Alliance ran a separate campaign contacting parish councillors, reminding them of the benefits the meet brings to local businesses. Similar attempts to prevent Boxing Day meets going ahead in town centres across the country were also defeated after successful lobbying efforts, including in Ledbury.

It is important, however, that the countryside does not become complacent. An attack on the rural way of life can come anywhere at any time, and as well as your continued membership, our political and hunting teams rely on and appreciate all local intelligence provided by supporters. With your help we can take the necessary action.