A CHALLENGE to the legality of badger culling in England was thrown out by the High Court today.

Ecologist Tom Langton argued that guidance issued last year by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), expanding the existing cull programme across England and allowing “supplementary culling,” was unlawful.

He also argued that culling was counterproductive, pointing to a June 2007 report which found that resorting to the practice in response to a bovine tuberculosis outbreak actually “worsened the spread” of the disease because badgers moved beyond the cull areas.

More than 30,000 badgers have been killed since 2013 at an estimated cost of more than £50 million as part of Defra’s attempt to eradicate bovine TB.

Mr Langton claimed that the government had moved from “attempting a precision badger removal policy to an open-ended badger eradication approach that has no scientific validity.”

But judge Ross Cranston said Environment Secretary Michael Gove's chief scientific adviser, as well as the government's chief veterinary officer, supported the extension of 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.”

The ruling comes amid growing local opposition to the practice, with activists marching through Derby last week in protest at culling in Derbyshire.

Tom Jones from Derbyshire Against the Cull told the BBC that it was “incredible” that local farmers were contemplating culling,  considering the “massive vaccination programme” in the county.