HIGH Court judges have thrown out a legal challenge which has been brought against extended badger culls across Dorset.

Tom Langton, an ecology consultant and member of the Badger Trust, asked the High Court to quash both the Government’s policy and the licences issued under it by Natural England - arguing they were “unlawful”.

Badger culls were introduced in 2011 in a bid to reduce the spread of the disease, which results in the destruction of infected cattle herds.

Government guidance issued last year expanded the existing badger cull programme to new areas in England and allowed “supplementary culling”.

Since the guidelines were issued, Natural England has issued licences for “supplementary culling” in Somerset and Gloucestershire and new licences for culling have been granted for parts of Cheshire, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire.

But, Mr Langton lawyers argued at a hearing that the guidance was a “significant departure” from the Government’s previous policy on culling and that a consultation carried out before its introduction was flawed.

They also added that a 2007 report following a series of badger cull trials concluded that culling could not “meaningfully contribute to the control of cattle TB in Britain”.

They also argued badger culling was a “scientifically, politically and morally controversial” means of preventing the spread of bovine TB, which can also be transmitted through other animals and is mainly passed between cattle.

However his case, brought against the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Natural England, was dismissed by Mr Justice Cranston.

The judge said the consultation was “in some respects unimpressive”.“However, it does not meet the high threshold of being so clearly and radically wrong as to render it procedurally unfair and thus unlawful.”

Mr Justice Cranston said the Environment Secretary’s chief scientific adviser and the Government’s chief veterinary officer supported the extended culling.

He added: “Against this background, a policy of maintaining a reduced badger population through supplementary culling cannot be said to be irrational when coupled with the commitment to change tack as evidence became available.”

Following the judgement, a spokesman for DEFRA welcomed the judge’s decision.

They said: “Bovine TB is a slow moving, insidious disease which presents many challenges. It is difficult to detect and there’s no single measure that will provide an easy answer.

“That is why we are pursuing a wide range of interventions, including cattle movement controls and a cull of badgers where they are linked with herd breakdowns.”