Hunting revisited in National Trust vote
THE Countryside Alliance (CA) is reminding members to look out for the arrival of their National Trust voting papers ahead of the organisation’s AGM on October 21, when a resolution to ban trail-hunting on Trust land is likely to be presented. Currently, 67 hunts have licences for trail-hunting—which is legal under the terms of the Hunting Act (2004)—over National Trust land, some of which would have been originally bequested to the Trust by landowners supportive of hunting. Key areas affected are Exmoor, the Lake District, hunting countries with large estates, such as Snowshill in the Cotswolds, Calke Abbey and Kedleston in Derbyshire and Holnicote in west Somerset, and coastal land, as in south Dorset.
Last week, some 35 tenant farmers wrote to Patrick Begg, director of rural enterprise at the Trust, to express their unhappiness with the proposed resolution, particularly in the fells where trail-hunting is an integral part of rural life. The resolution has been brought by members and is backed by the League Against Cruel Sports and anti-hunting celebrities such as the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
‘We quite understand that not all National Trust visitors want to see hounds, but trailhunting is a legal activity,’ points out the CA’S Polly Portwin. ‘This is just another example of a charitable organisation getting involved in political correctness and politics. We think the Trust should apply the same principle to trailhunting as it does to shooting, which is that it must operate within a code of good practice.’
The Trust’s statement on hunting says it aims to provide the ‘widest spectrum of public access’ and that this should include trailhunting ‘where it is consistent with our conservation aims and is legally pursued’. However, it has announced changes to the way it licenses hunts, including the banning of animal-based scents for trails, the prohibition of terriermen and their vehicles, stricter advance planning of hunting days and the publishing of hunt contacts.
Neither the CA nor the MFHA were consulted beforehand, although the Trust met with both organisations last week to discuss the way forward; there is particular unhappiness over a plan to post advance notice of meets, as this risks attracting saboteur activity.