HUNT supporters in North Yorkshire have slammed a report suggesting that banning the pursuit might not be as financially devastating to the countryside as initially claimed.

The paper, published almost year to the day after hunting with hounds was banned in Scotland, has found that the picture is not as bleak as campaigners had claimed.

Dumfriesshire huntsman Malcolm Bell Macdonald said: "The economic impact can be overplayed."

Since the Scottish ban on August 1 last year, only one of the ten mounted hunts has not survived.

But Mr McDonald said: "The economic impact is there. Farms are getting bigger and bigger and farm workers are getting fewer and fewer because of advances in technology.

"And here's hunting, just working away, still employing people year-round in areas where jobs are scarce - and the rug is pulled from under us."

Pro-hunt campaigners in North Yorkshire slammed the report.

"To the casual onlooker it would seem that things have not changed too much, but this could not be further from the truth," said local Countryside Alliance spokesman James Bates.

"It is true that hunting's infrastructure is still in place, and while an appeal is going through the courts it will remain that way. But the current mood amongst the hunting community is one of bleak survival."

He added: "The legislation was unnecessary, draconian and ill-conceived, and its negative impact is very much still being felt one year on."

Campaigners insist a ban will cost thousands of jobs across England, damage rural industries and kill off a centuries-old social tradition.

The Scottish Countryside Alliance said the countryside had been crippled by the ban.

Most huntsmen were not prepared to hunt with guns - where hounds are used

only to flush out hiding foxes - said the organisation.

They added that the ten hunts have seen participants fall by 50 per cent and the number of workers directly employed falling from 30 to six.

The Hunting Bill is now been passed to the Lords after MPs amended legislation to a total ban.

But Peers have repeatedly blocked MPs attempts to outlaw the pursuit and are bound to prefer a system of regulation - allowing hunting to continue under licence.

Last week, an ICM opinion poll showed the public did not want the Government to force a ban on hunting through the House of Lords.

Updated: 10:00 Wednesday, July 30, 2003