Camelford Boxing Day meet - North Cornwall Hunt
The facts, the objections, the emails, the decisions and the CALL TO ACTION.
The Facts and background
The North Cornwall Hunt holds its annual Boxing Day Meet in Camelford on the location of the A39, using the area from Darlington/Chapel Street to the main Churchfield carpark to gather and parade. The car park is owned/managed by Camelford Town (CTC) as is the bandstand area where spectators gather. Last year the Conservative Club provided an off-road area for horses/riders and hounds/dogs.
The A39 and nearby roads and pavements are the responsibility of Cornwall Council
Concerned members of the public who have also become members of Action Against Foxhunting – have been questioning the hunt’s use of Camelford and in particular the main A39 for the North Cornwall Hunt’s Boxing Day Meet.
A number of polite emails and Freedom of Information (FOI’s) have been sent to the Town Council Clerk, Members of TC, Cornwall Council, Devon and Cornwall Police and HSE with clear questions and evidence provided regarding the safety of this event and also the legality of it.
objections to the meet and the council’s responses
In 2021 a member from Action Against Foxhunting spoke at a Camelford Town Council meeting and challenged the TC on grounds of health and safety, detailing the considerable risks to the health and safety of the public who attend the Boxing Day meet in Camelford and also residents and other members of the public both on roads and pavements.
The Town Council’s response was that they neither support or oppose the hunt they are neutral. Yet at this point they were including the event in their Christmas events literature and providing barriers for the event at cost to themselves.
The following year (2022) The Boxing Day Meet had a slight change of location in that upon arrival and until leaving the horses and dogs were behind barriers by the Conservative club, although some dogs were not well contained and spilled out into Town Council land where they also used the war memorial as a toilet and one very badly behaved/excitable horse was sent to the public car park to wait. By way of FOI we know no event permissions/risk assessments/road closures were in place (something other events have to provide to obtain use of TC or CC land or highways)
After the 2022 Boxing Day Meet in Camelford correspondence was sent to the Chief Constable of Devon & Cornwall Police which included complaints about quad bikes at the Boxing Day Meet.
Three single seater quad bikes arrived at the meet, all carrying two passengers. One carried a child.
Only one of the bikes had road tax but it was registered as a different colour to the actual number plate. Two of the quad bikes parked directly on the tactile/braille/bumpy paving on the pedestrian crossing right by the lights and the third quad parked on the zigzag white lines of the pedestrian crossing.
Pedestrians including people with small children had to walk in the road on the main A39 to pass the quad bikes.
Video evidence was sent to the police. Julian Morris, responding on behalf of the Chief Constable, said “a verbal warning would be issued but I have noted it has not impeded traffic flow in anyway and that the pedestrians walking in the road to pass none seem perturbed and there are no indications of anyone being in danger.” It is difficult to understand how the Chief Constable could know if any of the many people having to walk in the road because quads were parked on the crossing were perturbed.
Rule 191 of the Highway Code states:
You MUST NOT park on a crossing or in the area covered by the zig-zag lines.
Quads bikes were also used to stop and block traffic to parade the horses and hounds (breaching the Highways Act 1980).
Other breaches included:
No road closure permission, no high visibility clothing, onlookers and children not behind barriers, children playing on the kerbs of the busy A39, illegal money collection/rattling buckets/no license, horses and dogs on the wrong side of the road.
Conclusions and next steps
WHAT CAN CAMELFORD RESIDENTS DO TO HELP?
As a Camelford resident, your councillors should be representing YOU. We know from surveys in the town that most of you don’t want to see the hunt parade in Camelford. Please contact the council and ask them to do the right thing: clerk@camelford-tc.gov.uk don’t be fobbed off that they can’t do anything about it! Insist that they have to obtain permissions just like any other event does, including risk assessments/the correct insurance/barriers etc
If anyone wants to talk to us about this page, please contact info@actionagainstfoxhunting.org
Protect the Wild’s Campaign “NO BOXING DAY PARADES” includes Camelford. Please email the council using their template (and maybe a few more councils too).
Thank you.
