A PLEA is being made to ban badger culls on land owned by Worcestershire County Council.

The authority is one of the biggest landowners in the county including farms, dozens of smallholdings and various countryside parks containing acres of fields.

With a fresh round of controversial culling underway in Gloucestershire, there are fears that land straggling the border between the two counties will become a target.

Councillor Richard Udall, Labour's rural affairs spokesman, wants the council to act by outlawing it.

County Hall does have the power to introduce a ban, but it would need support from the leading Conservative group.

Cllr Udall said he wants to send "a clear message" to the Government that other ways of tackling Bovine TB should be explored instead of a cull.

"We have it within our power to ban any potential badger cull on county council owned land - a move which would make any cull in Worcestershire pointless," he said.

"I am offering full opposition support to the controlling Conservative Group, if they agree with us and are prepared to introduce such a ban, we will support them.

"The badger culls have already been described as an “epic failure” by the chief scientific advisor to Natural England.

"To add insult to injury these culls are proceeding without any independent scientific oversight.

"Worcestershire people have said they don’t believe culls would work and they have opposed them."

Cllr Udall's stance comes four months after a campaign group, Operation Badger, presented a petition of 1,400 signatures to the council requesting a ban.

Members of the Tory leadership say their main concern is the farmers' livelihoods wrecked by the spread of TB, and insist nobody has the answers.

Councillor John Smith, the cabinet member for highways, said: "We all know we've got to try and help these farmers whose livelihoods are under threat due to the spread of TB in cattle.

"What the answer is I don't know, it's one of those situations where nobody has the answers."

The second badger cull currently taking place in Gloucestershire and Somerset has the support of leading vets, according to environment secretary Liz Truss.

The controversial shooting tactic is an attempt to control what is currently the highest bovine TB rate in Europe, but hundreds of volunteers have been out trying to disrupt it.

Last year 921 badgers were killed in Gloucestershire and 940 were shot in Somerset.

But neither pilot managed to kill the 70 per cent of the badger population thought to be needed to make the cull effective, leading to severe criticism.

The issue is due to be debated during a full meeting of Worcestershire County Council on Thursday.