A BADGER vaccination project will receive funding from Stroud District Council after councillors voted to support it last night, Thursday.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust runs a badger vaccination programme within the district in a bid to tackle the spread of bovine TB.

However, funding is needed to maintain the programme for the next five years.

Councillor Paul Denney (Lab, Cam West) put forward a motion to SDC at a full council meeting on Thursday, October 10, to request that the authority matches funding of up to £12,500 for the programme to continue.

It was supported by 22 councillors, while 15 councillors voted against it and one abstained.

“After the TB forum I arranged at the council recently I approached Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and asked if they might be able to help” said cllr Denney. 

“They said they would do so, and after going through the costs with them it was immediately obvious that working with the trust to carry out the vaccination would be highly cost effective.

"Stroud District Council was the first council in the country to ban culling on its land and so it’s now only right and proper that we have taken the next step and voted for our chosen solution."

See next week's SNJ for more on this story.