Dear all, 

Just a quick update to say that we heard today that Natural England have lost their appeal against handing over the badger cull information. I have asked them if they are going to try to appeal again. They have been directed by the ICO to disclose the withheld information.

In another positive development the two Judicial Review Applications are to be joined together. This reduces our legal costs by having the various challenges dealt with togehter by one judge. Big relief on the finance front! The generous donations will go further.

On that score, lets keep this fund ticking over if we can. We have had a number of offline donations and pledges worth over £1000 from a number of badger groups and charities in recent days - thanks to you all.

We may have to wait a couple more weeks before we learn about our judicial review applications.

I will update again soon with more details on the above, but a good week in the office so far.......

Stop The Cull, 

all the best, Tom

Dear all, 

Just to let you know our new fund is now open at this Link:

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-stop-unlawful-badger-cull

Please consider doing three things to help;

Donating again

Sharing on your facebook page

Emailing 5 friends and asking them to email 5 friends.

Thanks again; together we are strong. Tom

Thanks

Thanks to your generous donations, volunteers and the legal team have completed the complex and demanding task of preparing our case. We now have to  wait for due process and there will be a limit to what I can say about the case in public. In order to progress we are launching our second Judicial Review fundraising appeal to cover the costs of further legal work and towards the cost of a Hearing if granted and any costs exposure. This may not be the full amount required but it seems a realistic target to raise a further £15,000 over the next six weeks or so. I know that as a part of the crowd we can do this together. I will be contacting a wide range of animal welfare and nature conservation bodies to see if they can help too. I will provide the new link to the fundraising site shortly and email you all too. Thanks again to you all for making this happen. The destruction of healthy badgers and a few carrying bTB, as shown in this sad recent photo from the Cotswolds is immersed in uncertainty and bad decisions. Together we can get justice for badgers. Regards, Tom

Hello again everyone,

Having had a good meeting with barrister Tim Nesbitt at Outer Temple Chambers on Monday, we are now well underway to submitting 'grounds of opposition' this week.

I have registered with the tribunal and we will make sure that the right witnesses are called and that a robust response is made to Natural England's claims of the risk of  intimidation towards land owners - a reason for their secrecy.

Now some great news - The Badger Trust are hosting this next crowd fund appeal at:

https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/badgertrust/nomoresecrets

This is another mountain to climb but if we all chip in and encourage other to do so too we can get there by the end of the year. We have been given 3 months to raise the funding needed so slow and steady wins this race. Let's try and not let a day go by without a donation.

I know we can do it. Anna Dale says we can do it and I believe her. Please help expose the information that we need to investigate the damage to our ecosystems from badger culling.

Do it for badgers, for England's wildlife and for common sense.

I will be in touch again soon. Please speread the word. We need to hit £5,000 by 18th October for the first aspects of the legal work. Let's do this together. The Crowd can win.

Best wishes, Tom

Hi all,

Having had a good meeting with barrister Tim Nesbitt at Outer Temple Chambers on Monday, we are well underway to submitting 'grounds of opposition' this week.

I have registered with the tribunal and we will make sure that the right witnesses are called and that a robust response is made to Natural England's claims of the risk of  intimidation towards land owners - a reason for their secrecy.

Now some great news - The Badger Trust are hosting this next crowd fund appeal at:

https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/badgertrust/nomoresecrets

This is another mountain to climb but if we all chip in and encourage other to do so too we can get there by the end of the year. We have been given 3 months to get there so slow and steady wins this race. lets try and not let a day go by without a donation.

I know we can do it. Anna Dale says we can do it and I believe her. Please help expose the information that we need to investigate the damage to our ecosystems from badger culling.

Do it for badgers, for England's wildlife and for common sense.

I will be in touch again soon. Please speread the word. We need to hit £5,000 by 18th October for the first aspects of the legal work. Let's do this together. The Crowd can win.

Best wishes, Tom

Dear all, We have had delays caused by Natural England not sending information yet (promised early this coming week) and for more detailed dissection of the Defra 10-page response to our pre-action letter.

I now have a meeting in the morning with Tim Nesbitt who is the appointed barrister at Outer Temple Chambers in London. He won the similar case for Anna Dale back in 2015 and is familiar with much of the material relating to my case. The good news is that The Badger Trust are launching a crowd fund for the ICO Tribunal work. More news on the site soon as it gets up and running.

With the Judicial Review, this week is 'crunch week' and I will let you know how things are going as soon as I can.

Thanks to all of you for your patience and continued interest. I cannot say too much but we are making progress. No matter how upsetting the news from the fields has been, and it is truly heartbreaking, there area lot of people doing everything they can to bring this unjust slaughter to an end. If we can help stop it though the courts we will. If not this week next month. If not next month by the end of the year. This being the last year of culling is our hope if we cannot cut it short. We cannot allow the killing of badgers to be normalized across the UK as bovine TB continues to increase and spread. Not because of badgers but due to inadequate cattle  testing and lack of proper movement controls.

Thanks for all the goodwill messages - it is you that keeps me going through the grueling workload that is now almost full time 24/7. All the best, Tom

At 5.29 this afternoon (15th September) we had a 10-page letter from Defra responding to our pre-action letter. This is now being discussed by our legal team and we will be working this weekend to look at how they have answered. We now go into an intense few days while our next steps are decided with action on Monday or Tuesday that I will let you know about.

On a closely related matter I have had several generous offers of support to help develop the grounds of opposition for the Natural England Tribunal for their refusal to comply with the ICO ruling. We should be in a position to fund the early stages at least - more next week.

Thanks again and keep up the good work. Together we can resolve one of the greatest veterinary disease misadventures of modern times..

Today's distressing image of actions that the public are paying for, reminds us that all night and morning, hunters and farmers are now slaughtering hundreds of badgers. In a similar way to the failed approach to bTB management that has shamed the Republic of Ireland over the last 20 years. Yesterday we again wrote to Natural England reminding them that the issue of badger culling licences is unlawful, if the basis of their issue is unlawful and again asked for the information on ecological impact of badger culling that that are desperately trying to keep secret. Tomorrow we anticipate the delayed response from government regarding supplementary culling licences in Somerset and Gloucestershire. Next week we start preparing our grounds of opposition to Natural England's appeal against the Information Commissioners ruling, and according to the government response, begin the Judicial Review procedures as urgently as possible.  

Well we reared it was coming and the delays gave some hope. Government has decided to continue regardless and to issue cull licences for 11 new areas, despite our warnings and concerns. Falsely giving hope to farmers that killing badgers can help when the disease is rampant through poor cattle testing and movement controls.

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2989273/bovine_tuberculosis_testing_we_really_need_to_talk.html

It is hard to remember a comparable folly in wildlife protection in the UK. Destroying a species cherished by the public and rescued from brutal badger-baiting practices confined to history, only to be officially persecuted on the basis of controversial contested hypotheses.

This does not end our fight, it makes it more demanding, more important and we will keep pressing the courts and tribunals for justice. Thanks to your support  we can keep fighting and redouble our efforts to expose the mistakes of these putrid badger culls. 

At the last minute, this afternoon the Treasury Solicitor has written to us requesting more time for them to consider our pre-action letter  of 25th August regarding the Supplementary Culling policy change in July of this year . This is normal legal protocol apparently and we agree to it. It is not clear what is happening with the 2017 badger culling licences so we have asked about that.

This is frustrating news but we would want government to understand fully what they have done and to be able to represent themselves properly with respect to our position. 

I will keep you informed of news this time next week Friday 15th September or earlier if anything arises.

Regards, Tom

I had a call from Natural England on Friday saying that some of the ecological assessments for the badger culling zones were not yet completed and hence the licences could not be issued yet. The speculation is that they will be issued on Friday of this week or Monday next. Of course we hope that they will not be issued, but it is interesting that our concerns seem to have had some influence, as licences are often placed earlier than this. I was told that NE are using a new system for appraisals and that they are going through a quality approval system, but NE are still refusing to provide un-redacted material and won't even say how the methods they are using - yet. We are expecting to hear from the government this week on the legal concerns that we raised on 25th August  and will then take prompt action straight away according to our legal advice.

You may be aware also of talk regarding police communications problems and this having a delaying factor on the issue of culling licences. I am watching all this closely and will be ready to proceed based upon legal advice at the earliest opportunity and according to how events unfold. Hopefully we will find justice this time.

The Information Commission Tribunal relating to NE's refusal to release information looks like being mid-December. With others I am looking at this as it is potentially a hugely expensive thing to be involved in. Anna Dale, whose case is heavily mentioned in my judgement, won her cases in 2015 has been in touch and is keen for maximum effort.

Will be back in touch early next week if not before. Thanks, Tom

Sadly we learn a few minutes ago that Natural England issued licences for Supplementary Culling for West Gloucestershire and West Somerset on 25th August, the date we wrote to them and the Secretary of State about our concerns. 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bovine-tb-authorisation-for-supplementary-badger-control-in-2017

The licences allow the killing of hundreds more badgers in these areas over the next 5 years. We also learn that Nigel Gibbens is leaving his role as chief vet having done 10 years. Under the Badgers Act 1992, no badgers can be killed without good evidence of and expectation for veterinary benefits to cattle.

Yesterday, 'deadline day' came and went without Natural England providing the Habitat Regulations information that we have waited so long for. I have asked for the HRA documents redacted if they will not provide the open versions for us to examine as the Information Commissioner says we should be able to. the Tribunal date looks like being in December.

Culling licences for new areas in 2017 have not yet been issued. It is not quite clear why but they are expected within a week. There is talk of concerns regarding police involvement in the cull areas.

We are awaiting responses to our legal letters to decide the next move. Badgers deserve more than this and it is a tragic day for them, our disrupted natural environment and for the ethics of disease management. 

IMPORTANT NOTICE

This afternoon, Friday 25th August our lawyers Richard Buxton Environmental & Public Law wrote to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on my behalf. The pre-action protocol letter to the Secretary of State challenges the decision to adopt and publish the supplementary badger culling guidance to Natural England dated 19th July 2017. It asks for the guidance to be withdrawn and that no licenses are issued that rely on that guidance.

A second letter to Natural England addresses their high degree of secrecy with respect to Habitats Regulations Assessments of badger culling impacts. It draws attention to NE's indications regarding their approach to impacts outside protected areas and requests un-redacted copies of any 2017 badger cull licence HRA assessments. You may remember NE is already responding to a Freedom of Information request to supply this and the deadline is next Tuesday the 29th August.

We are asking NE not to issue supplementary culling licences until the first matter is addressed and putting them on notice that  legal action may be taken in respect of any cull licence which is shown to have been granted on the basis of a defective HRA.

We have requested a response  from the Sec of State by 8th September.

ENDS

Some progress, albeit beurocratic: I have been accepted by the First-Tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) Information Rights as Second Respondent to Appeal EA/2017/0160 Natural England v Information Commissioner and Mr Tom Langton. Natural England will not hand over the information, as previously described.

This process runs up extra costs. Anna Dale won her case previously and the effort was massive. A hard slog.  I face this extra challenge to seek justice for badgers and wildlife in England. But can only do it with your advice and help - what should I do? We are looking at the costs to do this and will make this known shortly. Perhaps I should launch a second fund raiser - we would have more time to do this and the amount should be relatively modest? In tribunals you don't get your money back when you win.  What do people think? Email me on [email protected] 

Perhaps some of the larger charities will help out. As I said before, things may be thrown in front of us but it will not stop the mission. I am trusting the crowd will see to that.

The map below shows the probable new English badger killing areas for 2017, although these have not been officially confirmed. There is also an area up in Cheshire to the west of the Peak District National Park. There may be 9 new zones this year with hundreds of badgers a day to be killed and wounded over the next three months- starting perhaps next week. Just look at how the area surrounds and creeps close to some of our national treasure reserves; Dartmoor and Exmoor and New Forest National Parks. Imagine the influence of carnivore release not just for 5 years as planned but now for 10 years or longer as the cattle measures fail to reduce bovine TB , unlike in Wales where no badgers have been killed and bovine TB has dropped by over 40%. A closer look shows hundreds of nature reserves, SSSIs and international sites in and around the cull areas. And Natural England still don't want to shows us what they have done to protect our national wildlife heritage from ecosystem disruption.

Well we have had legal advice and I can tell you that we are preparing for action. We have the huge majority of the public on our side. We 'happy few' (197 donors) will stand up for badgers and others will join us. If we get our case into court will raise more funding, we will fight for badgers and for justice. We will oppose unlawful policies and practices. We must wake the country up to the total nonsense and smoke-screen of badger culling, the waste of precious public funds and damage to our countryside.

LATEST APPROXIMATE CULL ZONES  Yellow 2013, Green 2015, Grey 2016, Pink 2017

Huge thanks again everyone. We have crossed the line this evening with donations from Lancashire and Glamorgan badger groups and others. The fund closes tomorrow at 12 noon. This gives us a good chance to respond and react as events unfold over the next few days and weeks. I will try to find a way to keep people informed of progress via the Badger Trust and Social Media. Lets hope we can achieve Crowd Justice.

Fantastic £500 from Cardiff Animal Network CAN. You guys  rock! It was a pleasure to meet some of you at the very well organised Cardiff Science and Evidence workshop in July. Right - the lawyers are sharpening their pencils and  we mean business. Will be in touch with you all again soon. Lets hit £10 K if we can! All the very best, Tom

The £500 from Born Free has arrived and gone into the fund.  Thanks to Mark Jones and everyone at Born Free. Mark was one of the first to recognise the potential  problems of disrupting ecosystems from badger removal and to help raise the issue widely back in 2014. This is another major contribution to add to the recent one from the North Essex Badger Group. Thanks again everyone.  Let's smash the stretch fund and get as far over it  as we can by the end of the week. 

Just a quick update as the appeal reaches towards its completion this Thursday. Thanks to all donating over the weekend and those pledging again. We had a superb rally and march in London on Saturday with the hen harrier and fox abuse protect groups, shutting down Regent’s street for a short while and with  great speakers outside Downing street. The pubic clapping, waving and giving  thumbs-up and friendly police attitude are reminders that the vast majority object to their money being spent on killing badgers. Chris Packham was there and has very kindly tweeted the fund this morning. Thanks to Chris and loads of other well-wishers. As the 2017 culls approach we are concentrating again this week on the legal case and gearing up again with further research and checking. Natural England told us last Thursday that no licences have yet been issued for new cull areas this year nor under the new  five year supplementary culling licence that was recently announced. We are still awaiting details from them about carnivore release impact studies for new 2017 cull areas. I have also registered with the Information Commission Office for the Tribunal that will hear Natural England’s appeal against the judgement for them to release key information from past cull areas. The ICO is another money-draining contest for us to fight and I am considering proper legal representation and a separate appeal for that. Last time the Badger Trust fought and won but as there is no award of costs in an ICO tribunal, that wonderful charity  had a bitter pill to swallow for justice. This will not daunt us. Together we can get justice for badgers and a competent approach to bovine tuberculosis in our countryside. Thanks again for all your support and generosity.

On 1^st August Natural England appealed against the Information Commissioners ruling on 4^th July that  they must release the previously withheld  information on designated nature areas assessed for potential  damage or disturbance to biodiversity, resulting from badger culling.

This is really disappointing as it further  frustrates a process that is normally open and subject to public consultation. We wanted the redacted information on sites, habitats and species assessed to be released and first asked for this in April 2014.  I have even offered to enter into a legal agreement not to reveal any sensitive information during our assessment but this was turned down.

The 4^th July  ICO ruling is here: https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/decision-notices/2017/2014420/fer0659789.pdf  

This will not hold us back. The information would have allowed a more comprehensive approach but while we wait what may be months for a decision on the appeal, we can still act now on the basis of what is known. The location of cull zones is fairly well described as are the nature reserves within and around them. I am meeting with lawyers this week and looking at all the options.

Meanwhile this weekend the appeal passed the minimum amount to enable us to proceed and our £9,000 stretch target now comes into play, arming us for the next stages so that we can react promptly. Huge thanks to Badger Trust Sussex who donated a magnificent  £2000 and to many other badger group members and groups who are chipping in. Please keep it coming. The appeal is supported by The Badger Trust and Born Free and others are taking an interest. Thanks again. Together we can make a difference.