Shooting club outguns council in court battle
Taxpayers are to foot a bill of thousands of pounds after a council lost a legal battle with a clay pigeon shooting club.
Gosport council took Gosport and Fareham Sporting Clay Club to court in a bid to stop it holding shoots in the Alver Valley.
But the case has been thrown out of court and the council, which spent 2,000 on its case, was ordered to pay the legal costs for the club.
The club estimates this will be between 5,000 and 10,000.
The row broke out last summer when the council took out a long-term lease on a stretch of land next to the Wildgrounds, which the gun club has to cross to reach the private land where they shoot. The council even installed a gate and spent 200 a day posting officers to mind the land at weekends.
But on May 21, the case was thrown out of Portsmouth Crown Court.
Club chairman Frank Yung said: 'We are over the moon that justice has prevailed – they didn't have any grounds to stop us.
'The legal bills runs into thousands and I think the people of Gosport will be annoyed at what the council has done.
'We've used that land for 40 years and the council was just picking on us.'
Councillor Peter Chegwyn, who was the councillor in charge of environment at the time, said: 'It was an open and shut case and we shouldn't have lost.
'The legal officers told me we would win – someone has some explaining to do.'
But Tory Mark Hook, who has since take over as council leader, told The News the officers are not to blame.
He said when the decision was made to take the gun club to court they didn't have a licence to use the land, but managed to secure one before the case came up.
'The officers did everything that was asked of them but unfortunately the gun club got a licence in time. If that hadn't been the case it would have been a different outcome.'
PROBLEMS FLAGGED UP
The club has held clay pigeon shoots on the land for decades.
But it wasn't until 2007 that the council flagged up the problem when a group of 15 councillors visited the site to investigate.
They said that shot falling into the Wildgrounds and surrounding areas was damaging the environment.
They also believed that it posed a safety risk to people who used the area for recreation.
The club has about 80 members and tends to hold shoots every other weekend.
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