PRIME Minister Tony Blair has ordered a delay of two years for the planned ban on hunting with dogs - an issue which arouses strong passions across Kent.

The Government is to bring back the Hunting Bill next Wednesday and ask the House of Commons to approve all its stages in a single day.

Ministers will then ask the Speaker to invoke the Parliament act to force it into law in the face of probable opposition from the Lords. But in a surprise act of drama in the long-running debate, it would not be enacted for two years.

The move allows Mr Blair to say that he has met his manifesto pledge to enable Parliament to reach a conclusion on hunting.

In Kent, the annoucement has reignited strong views on both sides of the controversy, as KM-fm's Conor Lennon reports...