The policing of Cheshire’s badger cull has cost taxpayers more than £1.3 million in the past two years, writes Stephen Topping.
Figures released by Cheshire Police show the force’s cull operation cost £484,892.16 last year – following the £831,093.07 cost in 2017.
It means Cheshire’s policing of last year’s cull was the most expensive in the country outside of Devon and Cornwall, which cost £800,276.49.
Police forces are paid for the work by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which has ordered the cull to tackle Bovine TB in parts of the UK.
A spokesman at Defra said: “The average cost of policing each badger control area has declined significantly year-on-year since 2013.
“Bovine TB is the greatest animal health threat to the UK and costs taxpayers more than £100 million each year.
“Our comprehensive strategy to eradicate it includes tighter cattle movement controls, more cattle testing and badger control in areas where the disease is rife.”
A total of 472 badgers were killed in the Cheshire zone last year, while 736 were culled in 2017.
Part of the Staffordshire zone also crosses the border into South Cheshire, and campaigners estimate that up to 1,200 badgers could have been culled across the whole county in 2018 alone.
However, the Government is considering other methods of eradicating Bovine TB in future.
Cheshire West and Chester Council approved a badger vaccination programme for two belts of land in mid Cheshire last November, while a volunteer-run Cheshire Badger Vaccination Programme is also in operation.
A spokesman for campaign group Wounded Badger Patrol said: “We’re not surprised that Cheshire Police’s bill regarding the policing of the government’s badger cull in 2018 was the highest of any force outside Devon and Cornwall.
“We saw at first-hand the extensive police operation, which of course is a very wasteful use of local taxpayers’ money that could be much better spent on essential services.
“This is all very expensive police time and equipment being used to police a deeply unpopular, unethical, unscientific and ineffective cull.
“There is now a fully-functioning badger vaccination programme in Cheshire, and absolutely no need for farmers and landowners to sign up to culling badgers.”
A Cheshire Police spokesman added: “Our role has been to plan and provide a proportionate police response that is independent of the cull and covers all possible scenarios.”
(Pic by Natbat, creative commons licence)
Stop killing your wildlife..
Cheshire police wouldn’t need to waste its public money policing the cull if the anti brigade stopped interfering with a legal cull.
I take that back. Looks like the cull was dubious at best, and likely illegal.