A pressure group has said it is considering legal action against the National Trust after receiving reports that some of the charity’s members did not receive information about how to vote on a resolution about trail hunting.
The charity’s leadership narrowly won a vote at its annual general meeting earlier this month, ensuring that trail hunting, where hunts chase a synthetic scent rather than an animal scent, could continue on the trust’s land.
However, anti-hunting campaigners believe that the use of synthetic scents will not prevent foxes and other animals being chased or killed.
The campaign group Keep the Hunting Ban has said it is being “inundated with messages from members of the National Trust telling us they did not get a vote”.
It has estimated that “thousands of members" were not give the chance to vote. It added that it is “looking at challenging this” and has spoken to a lawyer.
The National Trust said that the AGM booklet and voting forms were sent to members in the autumn with the member magazine and were also available online. The process is overseen by independent external scrutineers, the Electoral Reform Services.
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