Local councillors vote against trail hunting ban

Conservative councillors and two Independent councillors in North Yorkshire have voted against a move that would prevent hunts using council-owned land. Members of North Yorkshire Council have condemned being told what to do by ‘celebrities’ such as Chris Packham and Brian May.

Prior to the vote, the Countryside Alliance canvassed the councillors to vote against the motion, outlining the relevant facts.

Polly Portwin, director of the Countryside Alliance’s Action for Hunting campaign said it was “a victory for common sense”. Labour councillor Rich Maw, who had proposed the motion, was recently photographed standing alongside masked hunt saboteurs outside the council building.

Conservative councillors questioned Mr Maw’s proposed changes claiming there was a “hint of the class war about it”. Councillor Donohue-Moncrieff, a North Yorkshire Independent, said: “We are being told that we need to do what Chris Packham and Brian May do. Well, I hate to break it to you, Councillor Maw, the average person in Hunmanby & Sherburn doesn’t spend their life being told what to do by celebrities.”

Similar attempts to ban trail hunting on council-owned land elsewhere have failed in North Northamptonshire, Cornwall and Essex.