LEAGLE eagles at a Bradford and Leeds law firm have secured a ruling with significant implications for the game-keeping industry.

A decision by Natural England, the Government’s wildlife licensing authority, has been overturned in a landmark court case in which the successful parties were represented by law firm Gordons.

Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting in the Administrative Court at the Royal Courts of Justice, has quashed the refusal of Natural England last year to grant a licence for the control of common buzzards, in a judgment following a three-day judicial review hearing in June.

The case was brought, with the support of the National Gamekeepers' Organisation, by Ricky McMorn, a self-employed gamekeeper from Northumberland, because buzzards had been increasingly killing young pheasants before they could be released for shoots since 2010.

Mr McCorn made five applications for a licence to cover six shoots – all of which were rejected – in 2011. The delay in granting the licence meant the shoots became unviable and had this decision gone against him, he could not have continued as a game-keeper.

Matthew Howarth, a judicial review expert and head of the commercial litigation team at Gordons, represented the NGO and Mr McMorn.

He said: “The 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act makes it illegal to kill wild birds without a licence. But licences can be granted in the interests of public or air safety, for research and, as in this case, to prevent serious damage to crops or livestock, including, specifically, game birds kept for shooting. Where certain tests are met, these licences can’t be unreasonably withheld.

“In the judicial review, we specifically challenged NE’s latest 2014 rejection on a series of grounds, all of which Mr Justice Ouseley has upheld.

“We’re delighted for Mr McMorn, whose livelihood was at risk in this David versus Goliath situation and whose business suffered significantly because of NE’s decisions. This is also a very important judgment for landowners who want to apply to NE for means to protect livestock from predators such as buzzards.

“The case should reassure farmers, game-keepers, and others working to create an environment balancing human and ecological interests that NE will treat applications for wildlife licences, including those to kill buzzards, more consistently in the future.”

Among Mr Justice Ouseley's ruling was that NE unlawfully took public opinion into account and acted unreasonably in declining the licence application; that NE unfairly failed to consider its own technical assessor’s recommendation that eight buzzards should be captured alive through cage trapping and moved to captivity and NE unlawfully operated an undisclosed policy about how buzzard applications were to be treated.which required more and better evidence than was demanded for other breeds.