MALVERN Hills District Council this week heeded a plea to ban the culling of badgers on its land.

The issue came before the council after opponents of the cull presented a petition of more that 750 signatures calling for the ban.

Petition organiser Di Pugh told the council's meeting on Tuesday that culling is inhumane, inefficient and unscientific.

She said that Malvern Hills Conservators had already agreed a similar ban and that shooting badgers was ineffective in stopping the spread of TB to cattle.

"Vaccination programmes only cost about £120 per badger," she said.

Coun Roger Cousins said: "We only own about 20 acres of land that would be affected by this, and for health and safety reasons we don't allow shooting on our land anyway."