Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Deputy Leader of the Council with Responsibility for Climate Change, Environment and Future Generations

Forward Plan Ref: 2024/374

Contact: Teresa Kirkham, Head of Countryside and Waste (Teresa.Kirkham@oxfordshire.gov.uk)

Report by Director of Environment and Highways (CA8)

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to

a)    Re-affirm the Councils opposition to badger culling

b)    Note that a specific policy about badger culling not being permitted on Council-owned land will be presented for adoption in due course

c)    Note that the Leader has written to DEFRA making clear the council’s  continued opposition to the cull and any extension in size and scope.

Recommendations approved.

Cabinet had before it a report which set out a proposed response to the motion on Badger Culling passed at the meeting of the Council on 10 December 2025.

Councillor Ian Middleton thanked the Leader for writing to DEFRA and reaffirming the Council's opposition to the badger cull. He noted that since 2018, hundreds of thousands of badgers, including over 8,000 in Oxfordshire, had been killed using public funds. He criticised the randomised badger culling trial from over 20 years ago for its flawed science and lack of evidence supporting the claim that badger culling reduced TB in cattle. Councillor Middleton emphasised that the County Council should not permit culling on its land, sending an important message. He clarified that his motion aimed to find humane and effective measures to control bovine TB, such as better herd-based measures and accurate testing, rather than disadvantaging farmers. He urged the Council to fully implement the measures in his motion and hoped this stance would prompt the Labour government to review their position on the cull. He concluded by thanking the Council for considering this matter.

Councillor Pete Sudbury, Deputy Leader with Responsibility for Climate Change, Environment and Future Generations presented the report.

During discussion, members expressed support for ending the cull, stating that the evidence linking badgers to the spread of TB was inadequate.

Councillor Leffman moved, and Councillor Sudbury seconded the recommendations, and they were approved.

RESOLVED to:-

a)    re-affirm the Councils opposition to badger culling

b)    note that a specific policy about badger culling not being permitted on Council-owned land would be presented for adoption in due course

c)    note that the Leader had written to DEFRA making clear the council’s continued opposition to the cull and any extension in size and scope.