Nottinghamshire's rural communities hit out at Government's planned trail hunting ban consultation
Rural businesses and communities across Nottinghamshire have condemned the Government's decision to press ahead with a consultation on how to implement a ban on trail hunting, warning of lasting damage to local employment and the rural economy across the county.
Trail hunting is a legitimate and lawful recreational activity involving a scent being laid across the countryside for packs of hounds to follow.
Any pursuit of wild mammals is already subject to the provisions of the Hunting Act 2004, under which prosecutions are brought where there is evidence of illegal activity.
Participants act within the legal framework, contributing to local economies, sustaining rural employment and supporting a wide network of small businesses.
Rural campaign groups say that, across Nottinghamshire — from the Dukeries and Sherwood Forest to the Wolds and the Vale of Belvoir fringes — trail hunting sustains a network of rural businesses including farriers, feed merchants, saddlers, country pubs and equestrian suppliers.
They add that in a county where agriculture and country pursuits sit alongside former mining communities still rebuilding their economic base, a ban would strip further activity from rural areas that can least afford it and the impact would be felt from Southwell and Newark to Worksop and the villages of the north Nottinghamshire countryside.
Ben Wallace, chairman of Future for Hunting, said: "When the Government should be focused on delivering for rural Britain, choosing instead to prioritise an ideological attack on a lawful countryside activity sends a troubling message about where its true priorities lie.
"This is clearly a misguided approach from Government, coming at a time when all their focus should be on cost of living and mitigating the escalating fuel prices — an issue that disproportionately affects Nottinghamshire and the wider countryside and the wider countryside.
"The countryside deserves better than policymaking driven by prejudice rather than practical reality."
A spokesperson for the British Hound Sports Association said: "A ban would have serious and immediate consequences for jobs, livelihoods and animal welfare.
"Thousands of people are directly and indirectly employed through hunting-related activity, and around 12,000 hounds are currently maintained and cared for by hunts.
"Ministers have yet to explain what provision would be made for those hounds, or for the rural workers whose incomes depend on this sector."
Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, warned: "At a time when the countryside is on its knees as a result of misguided government policies and a cost of living crisis heightened by war, the Government has again chosen to attack rural communities.
"A ban on trail hunting is unnecessary, unjustified and unfair.
"This is nothing more than the government attempting to distract from the real problems facing British people.
"Voters care about the countryside, the food on their table and cheaper energy bills — not toxic culture wars.
"With two in three voters believing that the Government does not care about the countryside, Sir Keir Starmer is running the very real risk of causing a permanent schism between Labour and the countryside."
Rural campaign groups across Nottinghamshire have urged the county's MPs to oppose the consultation, arguing that the Government is once again penalising rural communities while failing to address the pressures they face on energy costs, farming viability and rural services.