CONTROVERSY looks set to rage in Lancashire over the government's proposed ban on blood sports.

The deputy leader of Lancashire County Council, Frank McKenna, has welcomed the government's decision which would see the activities of East Lancashire's Holcombe hunt curtailed.

Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw will be the minister who deals with framing new laws which will bring in the ban.

Coun McKenna says he will wholeheartedly support any proposals and is a long-standing supporter of the League Against Cruel Sports. He had a motion condemning blood sports supported by the council in 1990.

He said: "I never doubted that blood sports would be axed in this parliament."

Coun McKenna dismissed claims that the government would face a countryside backlash against the decision.

He added: "I have never accepted that blood sports is a town versus country issue. If anything, my experience is that opposition to hunting is even more vehement in the rural community.

"Barbaric activities such as fox hunting and hare coursing have no place in civilised society.

"They are antiquated pastimes that have no moral or practical defence."

Holcombe Harriers are often confronted by anti-hunt saboteurs.

George Dickinson, joint master of the Holcombe Hunt, said: "Coun McKenna will have never done a day's hunting in his life and consequently does not know what he is talking about.

"I would have thought the government had better things to do with its time than trying to ban a perfectly lawful pursuit."

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