STROUD Green Party members are unequivocally opposed to the proposed badger cull in Devon and believe that a mass cull of badgers is not the answer to controlling bovine tuberculosis across the UK.

As we live in a rural area, Stroud Life readers might want to consider their position on this.

A ten-year, £34 million study, which killed some 12,000 badgers, concluded in 2008 that culling simply would not work as a method of controlling bTB.

The research showed that not all badgers would be caught in the cull and the ones which escaped spread the disease even more.

In addition to this, there is evidence that cattle are the main reservoir of disease and transmission is over 80 per cent and possibly over 99 per cent cow-to-cow.

As Prof John Bourne, chairman of the Independent Scientific Group, said, culling has no part to play in controlling bTB.

Labour were at least brave enough to stand by the science and oppose a cull but still did too little to tackle bTB.

What is our new MP Neil Carmichael's view on the cull?

It is important for local people to know whether he would oppose or support a cull in the Stroud district. This is a huge problem and we should in no way underestimate the vast impact bTB has on our beleaguered farming communities.

Some 40,000 cattle are lost every year. But culling will not help, even with the complete extermination of our native badgers.

This is a tragic wrong turn. Instead we need better testing, more targeted restrictions of cattle movements and more work on vaccinations.

Fi Macmillan, Stroud district councillor for Nailsworth and Horsley