National Trust trail-hunting ban ‘may be unenforceable’

NATIONAL TRUST plans to ban trailhunting with dogs could be unworkable on more than half of its land, a senior lawyer has said.

A legal argument seen by The Daily

Telegraph said the trust might not be able to enforce the ban because it cannot order tenant farmers to forbid hunting.

Nearly half of the trust’s land is managed and controlled by tenant farmers.

Since fox-hunting with dogs was banned in 2005, packs of hounds have been licensed by the trust to engage in trail hunting, when they follow bottled fox scent across its land.

The National Trust is preparing to hold its annual general meeting next week, when its members will vote on a motion tabled by the League Against Cruel Sports for an outright ban.

However, according to the legal argument prepared by an eminent QC, hunts are unlikely to need a licence to drag-hunt on land maintained by tenant farmers.

Some 340,805 acres of the trust’s 613,000 acres in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are looked after by tenant farmers, which means any ban could be difficult to enforce.

The legal opinion, prepared by Timothy Fancourt QC, said: “Hunts do not need a licence from the National Trust to conduct a trail hunt on tenanted land, though depending on the precise terms of a given tenancy agreement the tenant may be in breach of the agreement in permitting such activities.

“Subject to the exact terms of any reservation in a given tenancy agreement, hunts are unlikely to require the licence of the National Trust to carry on certain types of ‘exempt’ hunting, though again it is possible the tenant will be in breach of his tenancy agreement if he alone permits such activity.”

In practical terms, this means that unless the trust has reserved the right to allow drag and trail hunting in its tenancy agreements, then it does not have the right to enforce a ban.

Tim Bonner, the chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, which commissioned the opinion, said: “No hunt has ever been convicted of a Hunting Act offence on National Trust land. Any attempt to ban hunts from National Trust land, or to make the terms of the licences unworkable, will end in chaos.

“Many of the trust’s tenant farmers are actively involved in hunting and the Trust would essentially be trying to ban them from their own farms.”

A trust spokesman said the anti-hunt resolution had been submitted by the charity’s members and not the trust. The trust’s board has already said that it is against the ban and that the result of any vote is not binding.

The vote is open to the trust’s five million members, and the deadline for postal and online voting passed yesterday. Up to 500 members are expected to vote in person at next Saturday’s meeting in Swindon.

‘Any attempt to ban hunts from National Trust land, or to make the terms of the licences unworkable, will end in chaos’