A BOAR summit has been called for, as wildlife rangers have revealed, they are on course for ‘a record cull’.

Fears that boar numbers are ‘out of control’ has sparked demands for an urgent meeting between councils, Forest MP Mark Harper, and senior representatives of the Forestry Commission and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

It comes as the man in charge of the cull said the Forestry Commission’s six-strong team of rangers are well on course to beat last year’s record shoot of 522 animals, with experts saying more than 700 boar need to be killed to stop the population increasing on last autumn’s estimate of 1,560 animals.

West Dean Parish Council has written Mr Harper calling on him to arrange a summit “to offer solutions in a constructive way.”

The letter, written by clerk Dave Kent on behalf of the council, says “valued open spaces, gardens, graveyards, sports fields and road verges… have been rendered unusable.”

The letter adds: “This matter cannot be resolved without the active cooperation of the Forestry Commission, and until now this cooperation has not been forthcoming.

“The response of the Forestry Commission is that the boar are feral animals, not owned by any individuals, and that it is the responsibility of landowners to fence against wild animals.

“While this is true, it is not a very constructive way to address the problem. There are landowners who for many reasons are not able to fence.

“It seems to West Dean Parish Council that no solution can be reached without the active involvement of the Forestry Commission.

“To that end, could I please request that you facilitate a meeting between ourselves, yourself, senior repre-

sentatives of Defra and local representatives of the Forestry Commission to consider the way forward and to offer solutions in a constructive way?”

Reporting on the boar situation to Forest of Dean district councillors last Thursday (March 2), Forestry Commission Deputy Surveyor Kevin Stannard said: “We’re more than happy to work with anyone to come up with a framework to live with wild boar – but I can only operate on the public forest estate, and

a wider group of landowners needs to be involved.”

Making his six-monthly report to the Forest Council’s strategic overview and scrutiny committee he said: “We’re on course for a record cull – but the Forest is an incredibly hard place to carry out wildlife control.

“The boar are hard to find, and also there are a lot of joggers up early, nightriders out cycling and dog walkers. To take safe shots, that’s not easy.

“And we still have a significant number of people who are against a cull and we’re having to work round those trying to sabotage our work.”

Cllr Richard Leppington (UKIP, Bream) called on him to ‘apologise’ to local people for the damage caused by boar.

Mr Stannard replied: “That’s too simple. I can sympathise, but to apologise would be to admit we’ve done something wrong.”

Cllr Bruce Hogan (Lab, Lydbrook and Ruardean) said: “The first boar I saw was in France, and it was straight off into the woods again, because it thought we were Frenchmen with a gun looking to turn it into sausages, so over there, there’s no problem. The problem here is idiots who put out food for them.”

Cllr Simon Phelps (Ind, Newnham and Westbury) called for ranger numbers to be doubled, claiming that the Forestry Commission was “losing with the increasing number of boar.”

But Mr Stannard said they were ‘probably

at capacity’ with six rangers, and any more would pose safety problems.

Cllr Graham Morgan (Lab, Cinderford West) said: “Soon, there will be no young people playing sport. Our playing fields and pitches are being totally obliterated and culling alone is not the answer.”