QUESTIONS are again being asked about the future of wild boar in the Dean after a series of incidents involving the animals.

A dog owner from Ruardean is warning others to keep their pets on a lead after an "unprovoked" attack by boar left her facing a £300 vet's bill.

There have also been reports of damage to a football pitch, a playgroup – while one householder is threatening to withhold his Council Tax unless something is done to prevent boar entering his property.

Mrs Jane Evenson said she was walking her dogs near her home when they were attacked by boar.

She said: "The dogs went into some undergrowth. There was no barking but then they came out, yelping.

"Bruce, my one dog, had been bitten on the abdomen and Millie, the other dog, had leg injuries.

"I had to call out the vet and it cost me £300. It was very upsetting – something has to be done.

"I would advise people to keep their dogs on a lead when they are out."

Pensioner Jack Aston – whose garden in Brierley was attacked several times last year – says he has had to replace fencing again recently because of boar damage.

He said: "I should withhold my Council Tax to compensate for the fencing I'm having to replace.

"The boar have done extensive damage and something must be done about them but neither the Forestry Commission nor the council seem to be doing anything about them."

The under-fives playgroup at Steam Mills is also facing a large repair bill after boar caused damage.

Manager, Marie Ridgeway, said: "It's so upsetting, we recently had a £300 turf area laid for the children to play on and a substantial area of it has been rooted up.

"As we are a charity playgroup we heavily rely on donations and if possible carry out the work ourselves. One of the children's parents has kindly offered to fix the fence and replace the lawn. Obviously the lawn will not be the same again and in an ideal world we would like to get a landscape gardener in to take it up and replace it but we have to try and keep costs to a minimum."

Cinderford Town Council's maintenance worker, Ryan Morgan, was called to the pitch used by the Rank Outsiders football team.

He said: "I received the call from the lads at the club saying boar had turfed up an area of grass outside the changing rooms directly opposite the footbridge. The boar had caused a fair amount of damage and I then tried to locate how they got in.

"The worst of the damage was a patch roughly two to three square metres and a separate area of about two square metres, but it's difficult to guess the cost of the damage.

"I went back down the next day to check that the boar hadn't got back in and caused more damage and noticed that the guys at the club had reinstated the turf to make it safe for players to train on."

A spokesperson for the Forestry Commission said: "The Forestry Commission is aware of the scale of the damage that boar can do within a short period of time.  We keep records of all complaints and we work together with the community to manage the boar in areas where excessive damage is experienced.  As always, our advice is for owners to check their fence lines regularly and keep their fences and gateways well maintained especially if their land borders straight onto forest areas."