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There will be no more shooting of rabbits and foxes on a Kings Hill sports ground after the parish council voted unanimously to end its contract with sportsmen.
There had been an outburst of anger on social media last week after an incident in which a group of youths said they had been fearful of being shot after visiting the sports ground in the evening, while the hunting was going on.
The incident highlighted the fact that the parish council had been using shooting - apparently since 2014 - as a means of pest control, which infuriated many members of the public.
One online petition started by the Kings Hill branch of the Friends of the Earth demanding the shooting be stopped has received more than 1,700 signatures.
But at last night's parish council meeting, many councillors said they were as surprised as the public to learn that shooting had been taking place at the Kings Hill Sports Park off Beacon Avenue, which is managed by the council.
Cllr Tony Petty had even been chairman of the sports park committee for several years in the past, but insisted he had never been aware of it.
He said he had trawled through all the minutes and could not find any record of an agreement to use shooting as a form of pest control, although there had been numerous discussions about the possibility of erecting rabbit-proof fencing.
Cllr Siobhan Kirk was angry that the contract with the sportsmen had been renewed on June 20 this year, without councillors being aware.
She also read out an email from the parent of one of the youths about the incident on Saturday, October 17.
The council papers for the meeting contained a report from one of the shooters in which he said he was locking the gate to leave the site at around 10.30pm when he saw three boys and two girls walking from the Northpole end of the site towards the pavilion.
He said they had presumed he was a member of sports park staff and asked “where they could hang out.” He alleged they all had bottles of beers in their hands and were carrying a bag of beer bottles.
Cllr Kirk said it was"only fair" to acknowledge that there were two versions of events and that the parent's email be read into the records, especially as it had been sent to the parish council in advance of the meeting but had not even been acknowledged.
The parent said that at about 10.15pm his son and five friends, all aged 15 or 16, had been walking along the path that lead into the football pitch when they heard shooting and saw a bright light. Thinking there was illegal lamping going on, they had run away at first but later returned by the main gate where they spoke to two huntsmen who were leaving the site. He said the huntsmen told them they had shot three foxes that evening.
He said that having spoken to his son, he was satisfied that one of the boys at least had not been drinking.
He pointed out that there was no signage warning anyone that shooting might be taking place.
Cllr Chris Finlay said the incident of October 17 should be fully investigated, and also another referred to Facebook posts, where a woman alleged she had been walking in the woods when a bullet had whistled past her, although that had not been reported to the police or the parish council.
But he reminded the council that it had a duty under the 1954 Pest Control Act to control rabbits on its land and also had a duty to ensure the safety of the many users of the sports field.
He said if the shooting were stopped, the council would have to investigate some other form of pest control. He had done a rough estimate that to surround the perimeter of the sports ground with rabbit-proof fencing could cost between £30,000 and £60,000.
The sportsmen on the other hand were doing the pest control for free. Cllr Raja Zahida insisted a full investigation into how the contract was renewed in June was also needed. She said: "People need to be held accountable."
Cllr Tony Petty said foxes were a natural predator of rabbits and that shooting foxes was in any case "killing our allies." But Cllr Finlay said that foxes also damaged football pitches by digging for grubs and by marking their territory with their excrement, which was unpleasant for the sports-ground users.
Cllr Shakira Falzon-Thomas said: "We employ a groundsman to maintain the fields. That's no reason why foxes should be killed."
Cllr Khaled Kassem-Toufic said: "We all want the shooting to stop and never start again." But he said a proper investigation into the cost of fencing was needed.
Cllr Nick Redding wondered if there really was still a problem with rabbits. He wanted to know how many foxes and rabbits had been killed over the past year.
Sadly, the answers to nearly all the councillors' questions were not available.
The chairman Cllr Sarah Baker and the deputy clerk Georgina Jackson did not have the information and simply recorded the many questions in the minutes for further investigation and a report back to the council at a later stage.
The clerk, Julie Miller, who may have known some of the answers, was logged on to the zoom meeting, but didn't speak.
The sports park is the home ground for eight local football teams and has a 3G pitch as well as several grass pitches. It is located next to Warren Woods Nature Park, which is a popular place for residents to walk their dogs.
