The Judicial review of government plans to kill badgers as part of a bovine TB action plan will be heard late next month it has been revealed.

The High Court announced on Friday (25 May) that the review will be heard on 25th and 26th June by the Queen’s Bench Division in the Administrative Court.

The trust successfully secured a review in April based on three grounds. It asserts the cull has not been accurately or adequately costed and would be more expensive for farmers than Defra suggests. It also said that Natural England is not an appropriate cull licensing authority and suggested that the cull would lead to a spread of the disease, rather than curtailing it as Defra purports.

In 2010, legal action by the Trust saw Welsh government proposals for a badger cull overturned. The Assembly government had planned to instigate a cull in the Intensive Action Area, where bTB infection is most severe. Following a review of related evidence, the Welsh government announced in March that it would be abandoning cull plans brought in under the previous government and instead focusing on a vaccination programme and cattle measures.

The Trust’s solicitor, Gwendolen Morgan of Bindmans LLP, said on Friday, “We have identified some serious flaws in the way by which the Secretary of State reached her decision to cull badgers. Given that DEFRA’s proposals come at an enormous cost to farmers, and threaten to prompt rather than prevent the spread of disease, we hope that this ill-conceived decision will be struck down by the court.”

Trial culls, the announcement of which divided national opinion earlier this year, are scheduled to go ahead in areas of Gloucestershire and Somerset this autumn after the Olympics. Home secretary Theresa May and senior police chiefs had expressed fears that austerity measures and other major policing events this year could overstretch police forces if they were to run concurrently.

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