News - Badger group slams 'secret' cull meetings
Sep 16 2008 by Andrew Forgrave, Daily Post
A PRESSURE group claims slaughter plans over the cull of badgers in Wales are being kept secret.
Badger Trust Cymru has called on Rural Affairs minister Elin Jones to end the "obsessive secrecy" in planning the slaughter of badgers, part of the TB eradication programme.
In a letter to AM Ms Jones Badger Trust Cymru accuses the minister of establishing TB groups which exclude key stakeholders, holding meetings in secret, and not publishing their deliberations – all of which is denied by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG).
Spokesman Steve Clark, from Badger Trust Cymru, which represents eight badger groups covering Wales, said: "If such groups and their deliberations cannot be scrutinised, they cannot be challenged. This is not what we expect in a healthy democracy."
They have demanded the information is now released to the group.
Mr Clark said: "The Welsh Assembly has turned the demand into a Freedom of Information request which does not have to be answered for three weeks and can be rejected on a wide variety of technicalities."
Badger Trust Cymru says that despite being a key stakeholder in the future of Welsh badgers, it is not even permitted to attend the meetings. They fear that the appointees attending are rubber-stamping the minister's statement of April 15 that "there will be a targeted cull of badgers" in Wales.
Compensation payments to farmers over the disease are up from £1.3m in 1999-2000 to £15.2m in 2007-2008.
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