Cheshire trail hunting ban: Campaigners consider legal action

A rural campaign group will "explore legal avenues" to oppose a council's ban on trail hunting, it has said.

Councillors on Cheshire West and Chester voted to suspend the practice amid concerns foxes were being hunted illegally.

The Countryside Alliance (TCA) said the decision amounted to "political grandstanding".

The council said it had established a cross-party working group to "depoliticise the issue".

Chasing wild mammals with dogs was banned in the 2004 Hunting Act, but trail hunting, which sees hounds and riders follow a pre-laid scent along an agreed route, is legal.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the authority's cabinet agreed to suspend the practice while it awaits the findings of a report, which is due in November.

TCA chief executive Tim Bonner said "pausing or banning" it on council-owned land "raises a number of complex legal questions".

"It would seem we will have little resort now but to explore legal avenues, as well as the questions that arise from the decision-making process," he said.

He added that the authority should "focus on matters which impact those who actually live and work within the local area, rather than playing a divisive, unnecessary and resource consuming game of politics with the countryside".

The council's deputy leader Karen Shore said it had agreed to develop a policy to protect wildlife from trail hunting on council-owned land, following a motion passed in December 2020.

She said after a working group reviewed "local evidence" and the "legal framework" around the practice, it voted "with cross-party support to recommend a pause on trail hunting on council-owned land while a public call for evidence takes place".

That recommendation was "agreed by cabinet", she added.

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