Council will impound traveller horses

[D66]

see
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-18188258
interesting.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Herts council have already been doing something like this for a while, it is the only way to start addressing the issue, and illustrates that councils who have been mealy mouthed and wishy washy about fly grazing have just ended up landing tax payers with a massively bigger bill as the number of horses multiplies exponentially.

The main issue is, getting the horses removed without violence/threats of violence and also the security of the holding stables they are taken to, it is not at all uncommon for them to be stolen back, sometimes with threats and weapons involved.

If councils had insisted from the start that illegal activity ceased and dealt with it they would not be in this position now :-(( But good on them now that the scales have fallen from their eyes, Im sure it will reduce the issue a lot.

 

[Murphs_Mum]

I just worry about the implications - if they can't graze them on that land they may well move them onto private land, not so easy for a member of the public to remove them. Council officials can hide behind there councils, a member of the public bringing private action can't. I don't have the answer, I wish I did

 

[itsonlyme]

Our council put notices on the gates of the fields, stating that the horses are there illegally and that the owners have (i think) 14 days to remove them. After that time, the horses will become council property but remain in the field for a further 14 days. During this time the owner is welcome to reclaim the animals. After that, they are taken elsewhere, where they are held for ANOTHER couple of weeks before being auctioned off to cover costs.
Gives them FAR too many chances imo.
Previous experience has shown that the horses remain in the fields until the very last second. Then the field will be empty for a few days before other horses appear in there and the whole process starts again.
Some of the fields have now had the gates removed (i assume by the council??) and huge concrete blocks put in the gateways. These fields have remained empty for a few months now...

 

[D66]

Will it apply to grass verges as well? I worry about the safety of horses left on the side of the roads.

 

[joeanne]

If the horses were destroyed they wouldn't be so quick to keep dumping them on other peoples land....council owned or otherwise!
Most are badly bred, badly put together souls who scrape by. Would save them a lifetime of hardship too!

 

[Strathmore Talloway]

I am not very educated on this subject but there is a public piece of land near to where I live and I used to pass every day and there was a horse always tethered in the same place rarely with any reachable access to water. I wonder how I would go about reporting it? Can i report it and if so who do i report it to?

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Will it apply to grass verges as well? I worry about the safety of horses left on the side of the roads.

From memory these are the ones that Herts CC are most concerned about, along with those left in insecure field: if left for long periods since they are the ones likely to start escaping and running amok in the traffic or suffer from a lack of grazing.

Not the ones who are properly tethered overnight as part of a journey ie a proper travelling lifestyle where the horse is looked after and supervised and gets fresh grazing somewhere new each night, that's not threatened by these council schemes, just the effective dumping of the horses.