A campaign of non co-operation has been launched by Devon farmers incensed at the ban on hunting.
In North Devon, two farming families have decided to end co-operation with utilities companies in protest at the hunting ban. They claim they are exercising their right to restrict access to their land because the government is denying them the right to hunt. Fox hunting will be banned in England and Wales from next February. Pat and Raymond Ford are withdrawing permission for an overhead electricity line due to be built across their land at Alverdiscott, near Bideford.
Mrs Ford has been a hunt follower all her life and as a farmer her protest could cause significant disruption.
 | | Pat Ford has told utility companies they aren't welcome on her land. |
Western Power had wanted to put an electricity line across her field. Before the ban she would have allowed it - now she won't. "We are very sad that we have come to this situation," she said. "But we feel that Parliament has not listened to us."
"We are law abiding people and we have never felt we have ever needed to do anything on this scale before."
In a statement Western Power said it couldn't comment until it has received the Ford's letter. But it was monitoring the situation.
Geoffrey Cox at Witheridge has written to the water companies, Western Power Distribution, BT, Devon County Council and environment ministry Defra. The letters say that access to his farm is prohibited unless prior written permission is sought. But if vehicles are allowed in, they will have to be disinfected and pressure washed according to a strict interpretation of government guidelines. Mr Cox, Master of the Taw Vale Beagles Hare Conservation Group, said it was because the law sent a confusing message to young people. He said: "They can go out in a field and get stoned on cannabis, but they can't watch a few beagles chasing a fox around a field. "I think that is completely wrong because that is not the way I have tried to bring my children up." A number of other Devon farmers say they are considering similar action.
What's now awakening in the Devon countryside is exactly what the government wanted to avoid - the beginnings of a high profile campaign of defiance in the run up to the next general election. Peter Anderson of the League Against Cruel Sports said: "They believe they are above the law. They're threatening to inconvenience the public and they aren't going to be thanked for it by the public."
 | previous farming news |  |
| 
