An anti-hunting campaigner has called for tougher action against Somerset hunts after she was allegedly assaulted twice on the same day.

Alyson Rogers from Action Against Foxhunting (AAF) has been calling on Somerset County Council to outlaw hunting on its land and regulate hunting meets on public roads.

At a full council meeting in Bridgwater on Wednesday (February 22), Ms Rogers claimed she had been assaulted twice by male members of the Cotley Harriers hunt (which operates near Chard) on Boxing Day last year.

The council has said it will meet with campaigners to discuss their concerns in greater detail.

Ms Rogers told the full council that she had photographic and video evidence of the Cotley hunt disrupting traffic on the roads around Chard on Boxing Day 2022.

She said: “The roads around Chard, used by the hunt, were obstructed on several occasions and hunt staff in hi-viz [jackets] marked with ‘Steward’ were directing and stopping traffic to allow the hunt to go through, not on the left hand side, but across both lanes of the roads.

“The hunt ignored and rode through a red light on a pelican crossing. Hunt dogs were out of control and running around and in front of traffic.

“The public were spilling onto, standing on and walking down the roads following the hunt with traffic trying to go about its business.”

Ms Rogers said she had been on the receiving end of “unbelievable” levels of “aggression and violence”, culminating in two separate incidences of her being “tethered” with ropes and tape.

She said: “In 2021, the hunt staff threatened me, tripped me up, pushed me around, verbally abused me and after the event one of their staff made a threat to me regarding the safety of my dogs.

“In 2022, hunt staff in hi-viz surrounded me, tethered me with ropes and tape, and moved me around against my will using the ropes, making it impossible for me to move freely or escape – not once, but twice.

“The first assault with two male hunt staff and the second assault with five male hunt staff.

“The level of physical and verbal abuse thrown at me by members of the hunt and their staff makes it laughable that, if given a road closure, these same people would be used by the hunt to look after traffic management, security and the safety of the public.

“Why does the hunt need to use Chard for their event? Why can’t they move it to their private land where they hold their point-to-point?

“The people of Chard do not support the hunt, Why do Chard residents have to put up with this disruption?

“The hunt and their staff have used threats, aggression and lies to shut me up. They are victimising me as a member of AAF to discredit me and the organisation I belong to.”

AAF founder Pip Donovan said her organisation had been pushing the council to force the hunts to apply for road closures – but that these closures had ultimately not materialised.

She said: “As you know, in 2021, despite promises from the council and our campaign, all the hunts met in the usual places, without closing any roads. The public was put at risk, and we collected evidence to prove it.

“Anxious to avoid a repeat of this in 2022, we continued our campaign. From early-autumn, we had several meetings with the highways department and were told that they were trying to engage with the hunts to ask them to apply for road closures.

“However, 12 months later, and a fortnight before Christmas, highways said that as no hunt had in fact complied with the request, and they’d be closing the roads for them using emergency procedures.

“What actually happened on Boxing Day 2022? Again, hunts met in the usual places without closing the roads, again the public was put at risk, and again we collected evidence to prove it.

“Two of the three hunts repeated their law-breaking activities from 2021, and the third still managed to cause traffic chaos in a different area.”

Councillor Mike Rigby, portfolio holder for transport and digital, said he was willing to meet with both speakers to address their concerns in more detail outside of the meeting.

He said: “The reason for the lack of rebuttal to the Cotley Hunt in that I was unaware of them.

“Before last year’s meets, we received assurances from the hunts that they would either not meet on the highway or would not cause disruption on the highway.”

The League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has written to all 110 councillors who will set on the new unitary Somerset Council, reiterating its call from May 2022 to ban fox and deer hunting on council-controlled land.

Regional campaign manager John Petrie said: “Somerset is sadly a hotspot for suspected illegal hunting and anti-social behaviour by fox and deer hunts despite the ban on hunting with dogs.

“It’s time for change and for the council to take a stand against this sordid activity by hunts which blights rural communities and the lives of local people, and brutally kills the wildlife that lives in the countryside.

“We urge Somerset council leaders to sit down and discuss how we can work together to end barbaric deer and fox hunting in the county for good.”