ROTHER DISTRICT COUNCIL: No 'reasonable excuse' to bend the law for a Hunt parade
Decision not to enforce PSPO can not be justified
***UPDATE 12:00 Saturday 18th Nov: Within two hours of this post going live over 2000 people had emailed Rother DC - and the Council had apparently blocked any more emails from this ‘group’. Very unsporting (much like the Hunt). So we are changing the subject line of the letter - which asks a legitimate question and deserves a proper answer - every few hours, but in case it still doesn’t go through reprinted it and the email addresses it goes to below. Please feel free to copy and paste it into your own email provider. Please change the subject line a little - so perhaps “Why are you allowing a Hunt to ignore your PSPO?” - as this should ensure the email goes through.***
This Boxing Day a controversial event is set to take place in Battle, a town and civil parish in the district of Rother in East Sussex.
We and Action Against Foxhunting (who have an informative page about this issue here) would like your help to stop it.
The catchily named 'ESRM with South Down & Eridge Hunt' - an amalgamated hunt formed from the embers of the now folded East Sussex & Romney Marsh Hunt and the Southdown & Eridge Hunt and based in Ringmer, some twenty miles from Battle - will be holding a Boxing Day Meet (or Hunt Parade).
The Parade will take place on Abbey Green and along the High Street. The hunt is planning to bring around 30 dogs to the event which will be unleashed and allowed to run through the town.
Which they shouldn't be allowed to do.
And that's because in 2021 Rother District Council (RDC) imposed a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) on Battle.
PSPOs were introduced under ‘Community Protection’ in the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 and they give local authorities (like Rother District Council) the power to “ban specific acts in a designated geographical area in England and Wales”.
The rules and guidelines on PSPOs are a touch complex (see our Protectors of the Wild Page here for more details) but while the specific details and the areas covered vary depending on the circumstances, they are legally binding. In this particular case, the PSPO in force in Battle legally requires dog owners to put their dogs on leads all year round in an area that includes - to quote the Council's own PSPO - 'the High Street, Market Square, Market Road and Market Road Car Park, Mount Street from the High Street to the entrance to the Car Park, Abbey Court and the Recreation Grounds at North Trade Road and at Telham', and for owners to remove any faeces the dog may leave behind.
The Order was issued for reasons of public health and safety and is valid until 11th January 2024.
One law for residents and one for hunts?
That seems clear-cut doesn't it? And in fact, an FOI by a local resident revealed that Rother District Council takes its PSPO very seriously and has issued SIXTY-SIX Fixed Penalty Notices to individuals for contravention of the PSPO. Clearly, the council is prepared to fine any resident who brings a dog into the area without a lead.
Yet on 10th November 2023, the Council's Head of Environmental Health, Richard Parker-Harding, unilaterally decided in advance of the Parade that RDC will not be enforcing their Public Space Protection Order when it comes to the Parade.
Can they do that? While the law forbids them from rescinding the PSPO completely, they can decide not to enforce it if there is a 'reasonable excuse' to not do so.
And the reasonable excuse they gave: "...no action will be taken because it would not be appropriate, the dogs are associated with the Hunt, which is a traditional publicised event, which occurs infrequently, for a short duration."
In other words, if a resident brings an unleashed dog into town they'll be fined, but if a hunt brings in thirty unleashed dogs they can run about the area, defecating where they please, and won't be fined because hunting foxes is 'traditional' and they'll only be in town for an hour or two before heading off into the countryside to kill something!
How unfair is that?
A handy Spot the Difference for Rother District Council: a law-abiding citizen (left) and a law-breaking hunt (right).
And it begs a question...
...what will the Council do if a resident turns up on Boxing Day and decides that if the hunt can do it they may as well let their unleashed dog run around as well?
In fact, that resident doesn't even need to decide on the day because the Council has already said it won't enforce the law. As Pip Donovan from AAF pithily put it, what will the Council do if that resident mails the council this week saying,
"I am planning on sitting on the sofa all day on Boxing Day, drinking non-stop and eating mince pies till I burst as is traditional in my household. It’s unlikely that I’ll be in a fit state to take my thirty dogs out for a walk, so I’ll just let them out by themselves. Hope that’s ok. I live just around the corner from Battle Abbey and they know their way home so they won't be out for long. I won’t do it again until Boxing Day next year, so I wouldn’t expect you to enforce the PSPO on this occasion. Please let me know in advance if you will let me break the law with no consequences. Thank you."
Of course, that's ridiculous and obviously no one is above the law...right? Right?
Hunts don't deserve special treatment
What the Council is doing may not be illegal - it is in effect their PSPO and they can change the terms if they want to - but in our opinion it is manifestly unfair.
The law should be applied equally.
This ragtag of a Hunt does NOT deserve special treatment. Before the recent 'merger' the East Sussex and Romney Marsh Hunt (ESRM) made the local headlines on numerous occasions including when their hounds ran amok through an animal sanctuary, when a rider hit a Brighton Hunt Saboteur with her whip, and when a terrierman was convicted of using a tractor to repeatedly ram a vehicle belonging to the West Kent Hunt sabs.
It is almost impossible to believe that somehow members of the Council missed all of these reports - and in case they had, they were sent a full list when the appalling decision to treat the Hunt as above the law was made anyway!
Hunts have been labelled Organised Crime Gangs by several police forces. To our knowledge, such a damning label has never been applied to dog walkers.
To bend the law to allow hunts to bring their dogs into an area covered by a PSPO - a law that BANS residents from doing the same thing - can’t be justified. There is no 'reasonable excuse' to treat hunts differently. None at all.
As we explained above our joint Protect the Wild/Action Against Foxhunting letter to Rother District Council asking they change this decision and apply the law to the hunt in exactly the same way they do to everyone else was blocked by the Council after they received over 2000 emails.
The text of that letter is printed below. Please feel free to copy it and send it via your own email provider (ie GMail, Fastmail, BTmail etc) and change the subject line to something like “Why are you allowing a Hunt to ignore your PSPO?” or “One law for the Hunt? Why?”.
The email addresses Action Against Foxhunting suggest we send the letter to are:
cllr.kathryn.field@rother.gov.uk, cllr.doug.oliver@rother.gov.uk, cllr.vikki.cook@rother.gov.uk
“Dear Cllrs,
On 26th December 2023, a high-risk, controversial event is set to take place in Battle. The East Sussex & Romney Marsh Hunt and the South Downs & Eridge Hunt (amalgamated) will be holding their annual Boxing Day Meet, and they will be bringing around 30 unleashed dogs to the event.
In 2021, Rother District Council (RDC) imposed a Public Space Protection Order in Battle, legally requiring dog owners to put their dogs on leads and clear up immediately if their dog defecates. The order was issued for reasons of public health and safety.
Rother District Council has issued 66 Fixed Penalty Notices to individuals for contravention of the order. The council is willing to fine individuals who bring just one dog into the area without a lead.
However, RDC has decided in advance that they will not enforce the PSPO for the hunts on Boxing Day. This means that they are allowing thirty unleashed dogs to run about in the area, defecating where they please, with no requirement for the owners to clear up the faeces or keep the public safe from their free-roaming dogs.
It is clear that the council applies one rule for the public and quite another for the hunts.
By announcing in advance that the hunts will not be subject to the PSPO, RDC are facilitating law-breaking. The council cannot “suspend” the PSPO, which means that taking a dog into the area without a lead is still an offence. The law will still be broken by the hunts on Boxing Day – unless they put their dogs on leads, or not bring them to the area at all.
This decision not to enforce the law for the hunt alone is deeply unfair for any local who walks a dog in the area – and in particular for anyone who has been fined. It also shows that the RDC is not in fact committed to their own PSPO, if they can so easily lift it for the hunt. Local Councils must obey the rule of law; the advance decision not to enforce this law just for the hunt is unacceptable.
The hunt meet does not need to take place in Battle. The hunt is not even local: it is based in Ringmer twenty miles away. If they want to display unleashed hounds, they should do this on private land.
I am asking you to change this decision and apply the law to the hunt in exactly the same way you do for everyone else.”
Absolutely appalling and totally unjust decision. Apart from the fact it favours the hunt, the decision also promotes the persecution and killing of wildlife.
Incidentally, if dog owners were to challenge the injustice by following suit (i.e. allowing their dogs to roam free) their precious dogs would be at risk of being attacked by the hunt hounds.
We will stop these cruel bastards, it's just a question of when.
Again tradition is used as an excuse for rich people doing as they wish. Dog fighting, cock fighting, bull baiting, all country sports that are now illegal. Tradition is only what people want to keep doing, and some people have more clout when they want something.