Our Parish is situated high on Exmoor and is very much a working community. Inquiries we have made reveal that at least 22 of our businesses would suffer a loss of income in the event of a ban on hunting. This figure represents the substantial majority of the businesses within our Parish.

Some examples are a business providing holiday cottages and bed and breakfast accommodation. Lettings during the ‘shoulder’ months of October / November and February / March include many bookings from visitors coming to Exmoor to enjoy the many aspects of hunting with the numerous packs of hounds in and around our Parish. Four packs of hounds hunt our Parish; these are made up of three packs of Foxhounds and one pack of Staghounds.

We have a busy local garage situated on the main county route from Taunton across Exmoor. It not only supplies fuel but also has a convenience store, sells and maintains All Terrain Vehicles, services and repairs cars and lorries and runs a large fleet of coaches and mini buses.

We have a farrier whose business covers a large part of Exmoor and would obviously be substantially affected by any ban.

Amongst the remaining businesses we have: One of the world’s leading Equine Physiotherapist; A village shop and post office; A McTimoney chiropractor for animals and humans; Guest houses; Self catering holiday accommodation; Manufacturers of stabling; Repairers of buildings; A farm machinery workshop; Catering establishments; Repairer of hunt and hunt followers’ clothing; Accountants and a livery yard.

As we hope you can appreciate the above mentioned businesses will all be affected, either to a greater or to lesser degree.

To our certain knowledge, Exmoor’s economy is in a fragile state – this view is supported by its "Objective 2" status. Jobs are not easily found, rather than taking jobs away, this area desperately needs a boost its economy. The reason this area has comparatively low unemployment is because many people have left the area to find work or follow a career the towns. Any change to Exmoor's economy could have a disastrous effect on all the people who live here.

We feel many people in our community would find their social life greatly affected by a ban. To a large extent it revolves around hunt functions and fundraising activities. A fine example of this in our community is the regularly held joint hunt and church coffee mornings. Additionally there is no doubt that our village hall and public house both benefit from similar hunt functions being held on their premises.

Not all members of our community follow hounds, but it is generally recognised that a significant proportion of them would not wish to see them banned, accepting it as an important part of our cultural heritage and our rural way of life.

To illustrate this point, imagine the effects of taking away a premier league football club from a large town. Some residents would welcome the loss, many would mourn it, others may feel ambivalence and some would not care at all. But one thing would undoubtedly be true – it would change the character of that town forever and the friendship, loyalty and feelings of togetherness among the followers of that team would be lost.

This is a valid comparison with the social effect on our countryside on Exmoor if a ban on hunting with dogs took place.

Obviously the urban majority would like to see hunting banned. If this were to occur, the only means left to control both the population of deer and the health of the herd, would be by shooting. This would pose a great risk to human safety in our Parish. We have many miles of definitive paths, many of which go through woodland. At present time locals and visitors alike gain much pleasure viewing a healthy and well managed wild red deer population in their natural habitat of open moorland.

A ban on hunting is an irrevocable step. There can be no going back, no restoring the situation if the wrong decision is taken now. In a fragile society even a small deterioration in the quality of life, be it economic or social, could so easily have such a disastrous effect that it would change the character of Exmoor - for ever.