A county council has banned the use of snares on its land without holding a prior consultation or even having received any complaints about their use.

West Sussex County Council introduced a policy prohibiting the use of snares by tenants on all of its land following the tabling of a motion by councillor Francis Oppler. Pressed by BASC, the council admitted that it did not consider any evidence before introducing the ban.

BASC said the council had not followed the principles of better regulation, and pointed out that the Regulator’s Code requires proportionality and demands that regulations should be focused on a problem.

Dan Reynolds, director of BASC South East, said: “The policy bans an otherwise lawful activity, which is governed by legislation and a government-approved code of best practice. No evidence for the policy decision is presented by the council – indeed the policy document says the council ‘has no evidence in relation to the use of snares on its land and has not received any specific complaints in relation to such use’.”

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