CHESHIRE East Council is likely to reject an eleventh hour bid to prevent the culling of badgers across the borough.

A meeting of the local authority’s cabinet next Tuesday (September 12) is expected to reject a Labour motion to prevent the protected animals from slaughter and instead embark and support vaccination. However, the authority is expected to continue to oppose any such culling on council owned land.

According to critics, there is no proven connection between the transmission of Bovine TB and badgers.

A report prepared for the meeting says the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), is calling on the government to base its policy on cattle testing, biosecurity and the development and deployment of vaccines.

The RSPB says the culling of badgers is a high-risk, impractical, unsustainable approach to reducing bovine TB in cattle.

In many parts of the country including Cheshire, badger vaccination programmes have been undertaken as an alternative to or adjunct to culling.

There have been vaccinations undertaken in Cheshire, including on Cheshire East Council land. The local authority has also sought to manage land under its direct control with a high level of bio-security.

The report says it is highly likely that any culling will take place in the areas where Bovine TB is endemic in wildlife.

Vaccination remains appropriate in relation to low incidence areas/uninfected badgers, but realistically, on its own, it is unlikely to provide a solution to the problem. sampling.

The reports states that the first few months of 2017 had seen a disappointing increase in the number of Bovine TB breakdowns in both the high risk area and edge of Cheshire compared to the same period in 2016.

As a local authority, Cheshire East had a statutory duty under the Animal Health Act to enforce legislation implemented to prevent and control the spread of disease. Whilst any licence that may be granted in relation to culling is clearly not ‘legislation’ in those terms, it does indicate that government considers the cull necessary in those areas as a disease control measure.

The council is aware of the significant problem that Bovine TB has caused for farmers in Cheshire, for the rural economy and for the area’s wildlife and supports the need to effectively control its impact.

The report’s author says: “A consortium has been established in Cheshire and is believed to have, received training for cage trap killing of badgers and surveying setts and is awaiting a licence to proceed.

“The Animal Plant Health Authority (APHA) has advised that the North Region (including Cheshire) has 10 applications for culling to consider and in all likelihood all 10 areas will be granted permission to proceed.”