Packham gets General License revoked!!!!

[bullbarrel]

I thought this was an April Fools when I just saw it on a shooting site.

The Government has bowed to Chris Packham and is banning most pigeon, crow, gull and Canada goose shooting.
Natural England – the Government agency responsible – is “revoking three general licences for controlling certain wild birds as of Thursday 25 April 2019,” says the Government in a statement. It adds: “These licences (GL 04/05/06) cover 16 species of birds including several members of the crow family, Canada goose, some gulls and pigeons.”


Chris Packham crowdfunded and launched a legal challenge called Wild Justice to the way the licences are issued, arguing that shooters are not acting lawfully. Government lawyers appear to have folded and let Packham have his way.


Taken by surprise by the decision, Natural England says it is “working at pace to put in place over the next few weeks alternative measures to allow lawful control of these bird species to continue where necessary”.


In the meantime, and until new licences are issued, anyone needing to control one of 16 bird species where there is no reasonable non-lethal alternative will need to apply for an individual licence in the same way they apply for licences to control birds such as cormorants and ravens. These licences take weeks to obtain and are seldom given out.


Natural England’s interim chief executive Marian Spain says: “We recognise this change will cause disruption for some people, but we are working hard to ensure it is kept to a minimum.


“We will bring forward interim measures as quickly as possible as the first stage of our planned review of the licences. We want to make sure our licensing system is robust and proportionate, taking into account the needs of wildlife and people.”

Time for all of us to apply for a license and let them see how workable their new procedure is?

[RobF]

https://www.fieldsportschannel.tv/generallicences/

link to the original article

[Inspector 71]

So, in ten years time, the only birds we will see are the natural predatory species that revocation of the GL allowed to flourish uncontrolled.

Hope you like your corvids.

What a set of arses.

[bullbarrel]

And Basc's view.

https://basc.org.uk/blog/uncategoriz...eral-licences/

[distantcamera]

He's shot himself in the foot, so to speak, campaigning against netting, which is the most common non-lethal means of control.

I suspect a standard line for the argument that non-lethal means would not be effective is that non-lethal means are prohibitively expensive, and would simply push the problem unfairly on to neighbouring properties.

[Thegogg]

Not applicable to Wales at this time as we're covered by the Natural Resource Body for Wales and their General Licences 001 & 002 are already in place for 2019 not sure about Scotland and Ireland though.

[Terry D]

'Details are sketchy. They do not appear to include licences to protect crops. However, they probably do cover Larsen traps.'

My bold.

It looks like 'protection of crops' remains OK under the new system, although confirmation is obviously required.

[bighit]

Not applicable to Wales at this time as we're covered by the Natural Resource Body for Wales and their General Licences 001 & 002 are already in place for 2019 not sure about Scotland and Ireland though.

Scotland's ones here but I dare say they can be revoked at any time .

https://www.nature.scot/professional...licences-birds

[Rocket launcher]

Borrowed this from Guns on Pegs. Interesting read

Here is the information received from Rishi Sunak MP, at 8pm this evening (24th April). Thank you to D’Arcy Wyvill of Constable Burton Estate for making contact with Rishi Sunak to get this response.

Thank you for contacting me about the Natural England removing the 3 General Licenses tomorrow.

Like you, I was shocked to hear this news and extremely disappointed. I fully appreciate and understand the considerable disruption this action causes to our agricultural community and rural economy and the livelihoods of many.

As soon as I heard the news yesterday, I was in touch with the relevant Minister to strongly convey my thoughts. This evening, I spent over an hour with the Minister and the Chief Executive of Natural England (and her team). Together with many rural MPs, we have expressed our frustration in no uncertain terms and impressed various things for NE and DEFRA to now act on to improve the situation.

Why are we here? In a nutshell the 3 general licences that cover the control 16 wild bird species were not lawful as NE did not have an appropriate assessment of need to underpin them (even though they have been using them for years). A court case due to be heard today/tomorrow (brought by environmental campaigners) would have found against NE and NE felt it therefore had no choice but to revoke the licenses. It seems clear that there has been a failure at NE. They should have taken remedial steps far sooner so as not to end up in this situation now - there should be accountability for this at the appropriate time.

But in terms of practical next steps, this is what I currently believe will be happening and what I am pushing for:

From midnight tomorrow the 3 general licences covering control of 16 bird species will be removed

Starting Monday, NE will be issuing new general licenses that will cover “the vast majority” of existing uses of the 3 licenses. These new licenses will be more specific (so as to be more legally sound, each license will have to cover one specific species together with one set of circumstances. eg wood pigeon and economic damage to crops).

It will take “weeks, not months” for all these new general licenses to be issued (perhaps more than 30 licenses)

A schedule of what new licenses are coming when may be available as soon as tomorrow but by Monday

NE are now working with key stakeholders (specifically bodies like BASC, Countryside Alliance, GWCT, NFU etc) to get from them the list of priority bird control situations that need to be covered ASAP

In the interim, until a new general license for your particular situation has been issued, NE are working on a simplified “individual license/notification” system which should be up and running tomorrow night. This would involve a landowner filling in an online form, ~5 mins of various tick boxes an brief explanation of what they want to control and why. Ideally they should then receive a very quick, if not immediate, response giving them permission to keep controlling for those circumstances so for the time being. The legal basis for this is being worked out as we speak.

I have impressed upon NE the importance of putting this all in a simple guide for farmers, gamekeepers, landowners etc which NE say they plan to have ready tomorrow. I have also asked for them to consider establishing a simple hotline number for people to call for advice

As the list of new licenses comes online please let me know if your particular use case is not covered. I have secured a contact at NE that I can feed these into for them to prioritise.

In the summer, NE will conduct a full review of the license system
I am very sorry this has happened. I know the real disruption and concern it is causing you and our community. Rest assured, I am fully focused on this issue and working as hard as I can to improve the situation.

I believe the Ministers in charge understand the gravity of this change.

I will be in touch again when I have more information. I would be most grateful if you could forward this email to any of your friends and colleagues who you believe will be affected by this.

Thank you again for contacting me and also for your support even though you have every right to feel let down by what has happened.

Kind regards,
Rishi

Rishi Sunak
Member of Parliament for Richmond (Yorks)
Minister for Local Government

[Clank]

I would also add this: Please be calm and collected when you are filling out the forms online. "Because I want to Kill Them" really is NOT a good reason. Good reasons could be to prevent damage to crops, prevent the spread of disease and so on. Cra**ing on my car does not cover it.
You need to be above the likes of that toad Chris Packham and his myopic view of the world. It did not escape my notice that he Crowd Funded this challenge, couldn't do with him sticking his hand in his own pocket now could we?

Hopefully someone has lit a fire underneath the offices of (or better still the backsides of) Natural England and this will get sorted out. Bunny Wabbits and those cute little Grey Squirrels will no doubt be occupying the thoughts of the Tree Huggers right now too so Natural England can get there finger out.

Wonder if anyone will give me a CBE, but then I don't think you can get one for being good at picking your nose.

[garysharples]

Is shooting pigeons a no no from now on with air rifle

[bighit]

Quote garysharples

Is shooting pigeons a no no from now on with air rifle



you need to apply for a license, link to the guidelines here https://assets.publishing.service.go...-statement.pdf

[ian321]

Due to the massive upset he has recently caused I decided to look into things he stands up for. It seems to me he is a very confused man more than anything else. Here are a few examples I have come across:
He doesn't agree with people using illegal trapping methods to catch sparrow hawks. A fair point in my eyes, I absolutely back him on this as I don’t want any harm to any birds of prey. Now, his answer to solving the problem........ ban grouse shooting what a stupid thing to come out with! How about prosecute the person setting illegal traps!
Next I found, he wants cats to be locked indoors because they kill masses of birds per year, especially in breeding season..... on the other hand however he completely disagrees with fox hunting. If he thinks for one second that cats kill more birds than foxes do he must be deluded!
I’m sure there’s other on here that have seen recent videos of alive lambs with eyes pecked out, rabbits been pecked to death, and other vicious attack’s caused by crows and magpies..... how does he see this as acceptable, but not a clean kill via a gun?

[venoman]

He was on the TV this morning , he has had death threats the police say they have 10258 suspects.

[hunter 001]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/n...mes-into-force