SOME of Britain’s richest landowners are planning to bar the army from using their land in revenge for the government’s decision to push a ban on foxhunting through parliament.

The Countryside Alliance believes that its supporters could bring military training to a standstill in the northeast of England, Scotland and parts of Wales where the SAS train.

The action will be among the first acts of civil non-compliance and disobedience that pro-hunting groups are planning to underline their fury at the “cowardly” way in which the government has “caved in” to Labour backbenchers.

Yesterday the alliance warned that the countryside would become a no-go area for ministers after Alun Michael, the rural affairs minister responsible for the hunting bill, was forced on police advice to pull out of a right-to-roam celebration. The alliance promised “forceful but peaceful” protests whenever ministers visited the countryside.

Tony Blair hinted last night that there might yet be room for a deal, emphasising he had always wanted a compromise whereby hunting could continue under strict licensing. “I think that if you can find a sensible compromise you should find a sensible compromise,” he said. “We sought precisely such a sensible compromise. Unfortunately it was rejected in the Commons and the Lords as well. So there we are. We’ll have to find a way through.”

Although the Ministry of Defence claims it is relaxed about the threat from landowners, a list of alliance donors revealed in The Sunday Times today shows heavyweight hunt supporters could potentially shut large tracts of Britain.

The alliance’s big financial backers include the Duke of Westminster, Britain’s second richest man, the Duke of Northumberland, who owns land around the army’s Otterburn firing ranges in northeast England, and Paul van Vlissingen, the richest man in Scotland and owner of the 81,000-acre Letterewe estate.

Van Vlissingen said: “I could very well see the board in Holland (which controls the estate) could decide to do something because the value of the estate and its jobs are measured by the field sports.”

Other landowners who might consider backing the military boycott are Lord Vestey, the farming millionaire, the Duke of Bedford, who owns 13,000 acres at Woburn Abbey, the Duke of Devonshire, who owns 75,000 acres, and Brigadier Tim Landon, owner of 50,000 acres of grouse moor in North Yorkshire.

Thousands of hunt-supporting farmers also control access to training areas, although the ministry owns most of the actual grounds. An alliance spokesman said: “I’d like to see the army drive a 30-ton tank up a bridlepath to get to a range.”

The alliance’s strategy to counter the ban also includes 30-year contracts that hunts have signed with farmers to carry out “vermin destruction” on their land. The group will claim the ban will force hunts to breach the deals, entitling them to compensation under human rights laws.

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