THE traditional Boxing Day hunt meet will not go ahead in Pershore, with organisers blaming the rising number of Covid cases.

The trail hunt itself will still take place but there will be no meet in the town centre for the second year running thanks to the pandemic.

“The Joint Masters of the Croome and West Warwickshire have made the decision that the normal Christmas meets that usually attract large crowds will not be held this year,” the Croome Hunt said in a statement.

“It is always lovely to see so many supporters but we feel with the rising numbers of Covid cases, it is the right decision to protect our community and the increasing pressures on our emergency services.”

Pippa Wilkinson, honorary secretary of the hunt, said it was a “real shame” the town centre meet would not be able to go ahead but confirmed the plan was still to ride out on Boxing Day to follow an artificial scent trail.

The Boxing Day hunt in Ledbury was given the go-ahead by Ledbury Town Council earlier this month, despite calls by anti-hunt campaigners “not to facilitate” the traditional meet.

The Ledbury Hunt had already applied for Ledbury High Street to be closed for an hour and town councillor Liz Harvey, who is also the deputy leader of Herefordshire Council, said there were no reasonable grounds upon which the application could be refused.

In November, the Malvern Hills Trust banned trail hunting on its land indefinitely after both the Ledbury Hunt and Croome and West Warwickshire Hunt fell foul of Trust bylaws.

According to MHT papers, breaches included dogs being out of control, unauthorised use of quadbikes on Trust land and a lack of evidence for actual trail hunting being carried out.

Trail hunts should involve laying a trail for the hounds to follow, to ensure a real fox is not killed or injured.