NEW national guidelines for police on enforcing the controversial Hunting Act effectively undermine the hunt ban.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has developed new advice which emphasises that officers have other, more important, priorities.

It says the 2004 Hunting Act is "cumbersome" and "unenforceable" because gathering evidence of illegal hunting has proven difficult.

The document, which has been approved by senior officers but is not binding, urges officers to avoid "acrimonious, time-consuming, frustrating and ultimately fruitless activity".

The guidance also advises police to rely on anti-hunt campaigners to gather information but warns that they can be unreliable and should be treated with "caution".

Richard Brunstrom, Chief Constable of North Wales and the ACPO spokesman on rural affairs, also stressed "hunting is definitely not a policing priority" adding "it is not illegal to wear a red coat and ride a horse in a public place".

Mr Brunstrom said: "Hunting is definitely not a policing priority and don't let me give you the impression it is.

"But that does not mean we are not going to deal with it. We recognise it is the law of the land and the duty of the police to enforce it – but to do so proportionately and according to priorities."

The new guidelines, combined with rulings in the courts, are seen to have seriously weakened the ban on hunting.

In March, the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to appeal against a test case involving Tony Wright, of the Exmoor Hunt, who was convicted under the act in 2006.

Mr Wright, of, Simonsbath, Exmoor, won his appeal against conviction before Exeter Crown Court in November 2007, after the court found the prosecution had failed to prove his hunting activity was not exempt from the ban.

It led to the pro-hunt Countryside Alliance predicting that it would be harder to successfully prosecute huntsmen. Tory leader David Cameron has already made it clear he favours a repeal of the legislation.

On the guidelines, Simon Hart, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: "It is clear that the police understand as much as the hunting community why the Act must be repealed."

Devon and Cornwall police, covering 30 hunts, said it came as "no surprise" and did not mark a change in force policy.