THE Beaufort Hunt's planned New Year's Day meet at Tetbury's Old Railway Yard has been thrown into doubt after the Town Council rejected the Hunt's latest risk assessment following safety concerns.

Tetbury Town Council, who manage the site along with the Feoffees, has asked the Beaufort Hunt to resubmit an improved risk assessment for its planned meet and will make a decision as soon as this has been received.

This comes hot on the heels of outrage from members of the community after the National Trust have announced that they will issue licences to allow trail hunting by Beaufort Hunt on on their land at Horton Court near Chipping Sodbury.

Local resident Chris Giles raised the issue of the risk assessment with the Council earlier in the year after he encountered numerous horses and a speeding quad-bike from the hunt on the old railway track last New Year’s Day.

He said: “The potential for harm to a member of the public was shocking. People were being forced out of the way on a narrow footpath by horses, which can be very dangerous at close quarters.

"At one point I saw the quad bike trying to ram its way through a fence onto the land beside the track. If it had succeeded it would have been criminal damage to public property.”

Following a series of questions to the Town Council, Chris is claiming that there had been no formal consent granted, no risk assessment and no marshalling to protect the public, despite the fact that it was taking place at the same time as a planned walking event in the same place.

“Clearly the site is not capable of safely accommodating people and large numbers of horses at the same time,” he said. “The only way to make it safe would be to close it to one or other of the user groups.

"The hunt is unique in the amount of disruption it causes to people in the countryside and for too long they have been able to disregard basic principles of safety and other people’s lawful activities. This now needs to change.”

He has been pressing the Town Council to carry out its own site risk assessment to determine whether the Rail Lands is a safe venue to host this activity, however said that so far they have failed to do this.

Captain Farquhar joint master of Beaufort Hunt said: "The hunt are in touch with the Town Council. We will be having a meeting with them shortly and we understand they and the Feoffees are happy about the situation".

Tetbury resident Peter Martin commented:“Since the 2005 ban, hunting has been a private, paid-for leisure activity,” he added. “They are supposed to be following trails and can therefore lay them anywhere. The question is not whether they should be allowed to meet at this location but why they would want to be there in the first place?

"It would not be fair to expect the public to forego their right to fresh air and a quiet walk on a Bank Holiday given that this is one of the few places they can go, whereas the hunt has tens of thousands of acres of open countryside in which to have their fun.”

Tetbury deputy mayor Councillor Kevin Painter conformed that Chris and Peter had spoken at the last council meeting. "They presented their objections very well," he said.

The next full Tetbury Council full meeting is on Monday, November 26.