A LEADING rural body has renewed attacks on the "irrelevant, controversial and pointless" ban on hunting with dogs following the collapse of another prosecution under the controversial law.

Writing ahead of the new hunt season, Simon Hart, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said he hoped this would be the last year "we operate under this ridiculous law".

Mr Hart's comments followed the collapse of a case brought against a Northumberland huntsman under the Hunting Act. Robert McCarthy, 35, of the Percy hunt, had been charged with illegally hunting a mammal.

South East Northumberland Magistrates Court heard evidence from two women who claimed to have witnessed Mr McCarthy and the Percy hounds hunting a fox on November 12 last year.

But District Judge Stephen Earl threw the case out at the end of last month, ruling there was insufficient evidence.

The Countryside Alliance condemned "yet another publicly funded fiasco that should never have happened".

It says hundreds of allegations of illegal hunting have been made by animal rights activists, leading to dozens of incidents being investigated and "wasting hundreds of hours of police time".

Staff and masters from nine different hunts have faced prosecution, the pressure group said. Five of those cases have failed and just three have led to convictions, while one case is pending.

In 2006, three men from the Devon and Somerset Staghounds were charged with offences under the Act. But the Crown Prosecution Service eventually admitted there was "no longer a realistic prospect of a conviction".

Writing on the Countryside Alliance website, Mr Hart said: "The Hunting Act is a pernicious law whose effects are entirely negative, and the collapse of Robert's case is hopefully another nail in its coffin. The only answer is to repeal the Hunting Act so that no-one ever has to go through the stress that Robert has had to go through.

"Everyone, from the policemen tasked with investigating hunting allegations to the judges who have to try and interpret it, would be better off without it. Repeal of the Hunting Act would be a public service."

An incoming Tory government has said it would allow a debate in Parliament on the possibility of a repeal of the law, with MPs able to vote how they wished.

Some opposition politicians, including top Tory William Hague, have gone as far as to call it a "bad law" that is "deeply prejudiced" and "ridiculously unworkable".

Mr Hart thinks the next year could be pivotal, saying "an extraordinary 12 months lie ahead".

He said: "In the last five years we have made the case for repeal and by this time next year Parliament may have had the opportunity to rule on it. There is every chance this will be the last season we have to operate under this ridiculous law."