TIGHTER LAWS COULD SOON END BOXING DAY TRADITION

ON Boxing Day traditional hunt meets will take place all across the region.

- By TOM MACK

With the weather looking good for Friday, there's a chance several will be exercising their horses and hounds by going out to follow a trail.

Following a trail, known as trail hunting, is one of the few things hunts can do with their horses and hounds since the law changed years ago. But that could change in the future, if new proposals are backed.

After Tony Blair's Labour government fulfilled its manifesto promise to ban hunting, the Hunting Act 2004 came into force in England and Wales in February 2005, forbidding hunts from using hounds to kill foxes.

Hunting had already been banned in Scotland in 2002, while it still remains legal in Northern Ireland.

But, instead of closing down, hunts all over England and Wales, continued using their horses and hounds to follow trails.