National Trust may be forced to rip out all barbed wire

THE National Trust may be forced to remove barbed wire from its land after members claimed the fencing is a danger to animals and people.

They want the charity – the biggest owner of farmland in the UK – to stop using the fencing.

If their proposal is approved by the trust’s five million members, it could face a bill running into millions for new fencing on the 618,000 acres it administers.

Concerns about the fencing material came to the fore in March when a trust member found a deer’s body entangled in a barbed wire fence on the edge of one of its properties.

Brian MacShane saw the deer hanging upside down from the fence at Greys Court, a Tudor country house and garden near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. The 53-year-old interior designer, from Henley, started a campaign

‘Deer hanging on a fence’

to get the trust to stop using barbed wire. He has now gathered support from more than 100 members – enough for there to be a vote on a ban at the annual general meeting on October 20.

Mr MacShane said: ‘I came across the deer hanging on the fence on a dog walk. I was horrified by it. I was looking at the National Trust website, and it’s meant to be about helping wildlife. There are many good examples of modern farms where they don’t need to use barbed wire.’

The trust members’ resolution calls for the installation of new barbed wire fencing to be banned and for existing fencing to be removed within five years.

But the trust board has called on members to vote against the resolution, saying barbed wire enables the charity to protect land from damage by livestock. The board added: ‘The number of incidences of deer, and other wildlife, being harmed by barbed wire is extremely low.’