Brockwatch

A routine check of a small badger sett during March 2007 showed that the sett has been subjected to illegal blocking.

It is not clear when the blocking took place, but it does not appear to have been a recent incident. The resident badgers have since re-opened most of the blocked entrances. One of the entrances had been blocked with a plastic drum, but the badgers have managed to dig around the obstruction. Entrances which remain unopened are blocked with branches and earth.

Under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 it is an offence to interfere with a badger sett by, among other things, obstructing access to or any entrance of a sett.

The spot where the sett is located, in the bank of a stream in West Northants, is visible from a nearby road and so the sett was thought to be relatively safe from disturbance. Clearly that is not the case and it is not just setts which are hidden from public view which need to be monitored for signs of persecution.