A GROUP of Bream residents is set to declare war on the sheep badgers.
As yet unnamed and only in touch by telephone, the group is preparing to "go public" later this month when they will elect a committee. They say they will be willing to go as far as the High Court to keep the sheep out of the village.
And it is no idle threat, they say.
"We mean business. We have enjoyed 12 months without them; without the mess and muck and we don't see why we should have to endure it again," said a village resident who has admitted she was the one who printed off leaflets urging Bream residents to complain about the sheep to the council and the police at every opportunity.
"I didn't instigate the leaflets but I agree with the cause and I agreed to print them off," she said.
"We're not quite ready to go public yet but you can tell the badgers we are not going to sit back and let them ruin our lives and our roads, pavements and gardens. The sheep have only been back a couple of weeks but I have already had them in my garden," she said.
"There are signs on all the lamp posts warning us that if we let our dogs foul the pavements we can be fined £1,000. Yet the badgers seem to think the sheep can mess everywhere and they have no responsibility to clean it up.
"But now they have to, and if they don't the council can clean it up and send them the bill," she said.
The group is expected to meet formally before the end of the month and elect a committee which will be headed by "a Forester of long-standing."
The distribution of the leaflet has been condemned by the Commoners' Association as "misinformation" .
Association secretary Mick Holder said it had not been authorised by the police or the council and would only further jeopardise the successful implementation of the new agreement.
He said there was a danger that the spread of false information would do more harm than good.
Members of the Commoners' Association, the police, Forestry Commission and the district council were meeting in Coleford on Tuesday to discuss the latest situation.