On Thursday, badger cull licensing body Natural England revealed it has received expressions of interest from five new counties in Western England, where prospective cull companies want to begin culling badgers in a bid to rid the area of bovine TB.

Last year, badger culling was extended to Dorset, though the two ‘trial culls’ in Somerset and Gloucestershire were only half complete, and had only seen the target number of badgers shot by cull companies reached in one area, in one year of culling.

In total, Natural England announced it has had 29 applications or expressions of interest for badger control licences covering areas ranging from 135 km2 to 655 km2. In addition to Gloucestershire, Devon and Dorset, the licensing body said it has received expressions of interest from Cheshire, Cornwall, Herefordshire, Somerset, Wiltshire and Worcestershire.

There will be a consultation on the applications, which will be open for submissions from stakeholders until 16th March.

On Friday morning, Badger Trust CEO Dominic Dyer said the list of applications did not appear to have changed greatly from last year, and pointed out that then only one new area was given the green light to begin culling. He said that the framework for gaining a cull license has been loosened somewhat but was confident that the majority of applications would not be successful.

In 2013 and 2014, culling in two areas cost the public purse £16.8 million, or £6,775 per badger killed. The Badger Trust estimates that culling so far has cost the public around £23 million, including policing costs, and said that, having suffered swingeing cuts to its budget, Defra (which oversees arms-length bodies like Natural England) will be ill-equipped to bankroll further cull roll-outs.

Mr Dyer also noted that, though the effect of culling on TB incidences in either badgers or cattle is not being measured as part of the cull policy, government TB mapping data has not shown any significant changes in TB instance around the cull zones. At the NFU conference in February last year, union president Meurig Raymond said there had been significant reductions in bTB inside the cull zones, which he attributed to badger culling, though Defra figures don’t appear to have borne out these claims. In December, Parliament's Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee asked the government to provide clear evidence that the badger culls are working.

The Badger Trust spokesperson said, “Public opposition to the cull is still very strong, and there are marches against the policy going ahead in Brighton later this month and Plymouth in March.”

On Friday, a Natural England spokesperson commented, “Natural England has a statutory role in supporting the Government’s bTB eradication strategy through the issuing and administering of licences to cull and vaccinate badgers. 

“As part of that process, in areas where a badger cull licence may be issued, it is the policy for members of the public to be given the opportunity to raise any concerns about how they might be directly affected by the activities carried out under that licence. This is known as an Opportunity to Comment. The Opportunity to Comment in these areas will run for 28 days.”

The spokesperson could not comment on the Defra budget constraints held up by cull opponents as a possible hurdle to further expansion.