COUNCILLORS attending an extraordinary meeting of the District Council last Thursday voted to completely ban the culling of badgers on land that it owns or controls.

The move came despite expectations that the Conservative-led council would bow to national policy to promote the badger cull and possibly refuse to debate the issue, but in the event a spirited debate, which ran over an hour and a half, resulted in the Council examining a carefully-worded resolution that aimed to veto the cull.

Eighteen speeches from representatives of all the parties that make up the Council were made – and in many of them came a plea that the councillors should abandon their party lines and, in the words of Cllr Ian Whitburn: "Do not consider that this is a party political topic: I urge Councillors to vote with their conscience."

After a vote was taken, the initial resolution was defeated, with 15 councillors voting for the ban on culling, and 19 against.

But that initial resolution had a further amendment debated: where the council would not be obliged to inform all landowners in adjacent properties on a compulsory basis of their decision to ban culling, but to adopt a policy where they would 'endevour to' contact and inform as many of the affected neighbouring property owners as possible.

This further amendment – which massively reduces the financial burden on the Council to inform neighbours directly – proved to be a shrewd move, and the final vote tally came to 29 votes for the ban on culling, with one vote against, and one abstention.

At the announcement of the tally the packed public seating area erupted in applause and cheering as the badger supporters waved their placards and celebrated the outcome – a reaction that clearly pleased many councillors, and also the chair of the meeting, who later declared that she had been 'rather nervous' of so many anti-cull supporters in the chamber, but thanked them for their patience and behaviour.

•On Tuesday of this week Tewkesbury District Council followed the FODDC and voted to also ban any culling of badgers on their land.

The next significant vote on the matter will be taken by West Somerset district council at the end of this week. Should they veto the cull as well, the refusal of the various district councils to allow the cull on their land may well become a central part of the forthcoming House of Commons debate on the subject.

This new debate has been forced on the Government after the Brian May inspired on-line petition against the cull reached the 100,000 mark – a figure which automatically means the matter must be debated in Parliament.