Controversy surrounding the badger cull which is to take place in Gloucestershire and Somerset continues as there are now worries over the cost of the cull.
Speaking in Parliament, farming minister David Heath told shadow environment secretary, Mary Creagh, "The best estimate for the number of badgers within each pilot area is: west Gloucestershire, 3,600; west Somerset: 4,300." However, the environment department's original, generic estimates were 2,000-3,000 for cull zones of that size. Therefore, the figures show killing costs have as much as doubled in the case of Somerset.
A Whitehall source said that Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers' Union (NFU), feels the cull may now be too expensive to carry out, given the new higher badger numbers. The Government's own impact assessment had already shown that carrying out the cull will cost more than it saves.
Professor John McInerney of agricultural policy at the University of Exeter claims that for every 150 sq km zone where badger culling takes place, the total costs will come to around £1.55m while the total savings in terms of TB prevention in cattle will amount to about £970,000.
Of the £1.55m spent on the cull, £215,000 is the cost to farmers of paying for shooting the badgers, while the cost to the public purse for the likes of licensing and policing amounts to £1.335m.
"Overall it's not a good deal," Prof McInerney said. "It's a good deal for farmers, given how much they pay towards it, but it's a bad deal for taxpayers in strict economic terms."
The Whitehall source added, "Everyone in the department is scrambling with increasing desperation to make an unworkable policy work, so Paterson doesn't look like the failure David Cameron and Nick Clegg saw his predecessor Caroline Spelman as being." Paterson has been holding daily meetings on the cull.
Licences to begin the cull were issued by Natural England on 17 September for Gloucestershire, and on 4 October for Somerset, yet the cull has not begun and time is running out before winter weather means the badgers lie low in their setts.
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