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Dear Mr. Morgan
I refer to your email received on 30t'' January. The
responses to the queries you raised are as follows
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It is not accepted that there are rights in
common for
grazing sheep in the statutory forest. Our action is
for statutory nuisance as defined in Section 79 of the
Environmental Protection Act 1990. Further, the Town Police
Clauses Act 1834 and the Highways Act 1980 and other common law
provisions apply to sheep roaming through built up areas.
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Where a statutory nuisance is identified the
council is under a duty to act. Enforcement decisions are
delegated to officers, therefore, this was not considered by the
Council. However, the four political group leaders or deputies
were consulted prior to service of Notice. All Members were
subsequently informed of our actions.
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This action was not specifically discussed at the
Sheep Liaison Committee, although the committee was informed on
more than one occasion that we were seeking legal opinion on the
most appropriate remedy to the problem of sheep nuisance. Once
our course of action became clear in December 2005, we were
advised to act swiftly to ensure the council was not exposed to
judicial review for failure to abate the nuisance. A liaison
committee was not planned until February 2006, which would have
been an unreasonable delay, especially as the notes of the
committee had been considered in reaching our conclusion on the
need for positive action. Had a meeting been planned before
Christmas, I am sure we would have shared our intentions, but
this would not have changed our course of action.
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I cannot give an estimate of final costs which
will depend on the action taken by the Forestry Commission.
However, these will be significantly less than the costs the
Council has already incurred in dealing with sheep complaints
and associated issues. An application for these costs will be
made as part of our action and any shortfall will be met from
the unforeseen items reserve within our budget.
· We
have obtained legal opinion on this issue. I cannot supply a
copy as it forms ' part of the current legal proceedings and
is, therefore, not a public document because it is exempt from
publication by virtue of Sections 30, 31 and 42 of the Freedom
of Information Act 2000. The public interest would not be served
by the publication of Counsel's opinion and advice.
· We
have received 892 complaints from January 2002 to December 2005.
The natures of the complaints are various. Ranging from concerns
that sheep may cause an accident to a very distressed person
ringing in after hitting and severely injuring
· a
sheep. Other complaints relate to nuisance, fouling, damage to
gardens and refuse bags being torn open and contents scattered.
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With regard to your ultimate paragraph, you will
no doubt be aware that since 1994 the council, with other
agencies, has been an active member of the Liaison Group and has
provided support to efforts to remove the sheep nuisance from
the forest communities. The tradition of sheep grazing has now
changed considerably from that enjoyed prior to the 1950s, and
all Members wish to see the nuisance caused by free-roaming
sheep to be abated, but without precluding the traditional sheep
grazing of the forest, which is also the overwhelming opinion of
the members of the communities effected.
Yours sincerely
Paul Symonds
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