Green Party members from Devon and other parts of the South West will be taking part in this weekend's Badger March in Exeter. Hundreds of protestors are expected to gather in Belmont Park at noon on Saturday before marching through the city centre in protest at the government's badger policy and plans to extend the cull into Devon, Cornwall and Dorset.

Greens have consistently opposed the badger cull trials and have campaigned for humane solutions to the devastating effects of Bovine TB. The Party has called for the money earmarked for culling to be transferred to funding research on badger and cattle vaccination.

Emily McIvor, the Green Party's national speaker on rural affairs and one of the lead South West candidates in this year's European elections will be attending the march and will be speaking at the event. She will tell protesters:

"We understand the devastating effects of TB on farmers, which is why we are calling for the funds currently being wasted on this fiasco to be invested to finding a genuine solution instead. The Green Party is clear that culling is not the answer to what we consider a very serious rural problem. The government should just admit its error and cancel the culling programme now".

The organisers of Saturday's march say the event provides an opportunity to demonstrate the huge opposition there is to the government's cull policy. The family-friendly event provides a chance for people of all ages to voice their concerns in a democratic and peaceful protest. There will also be information stalls, speakers and protesters dressed as badgers.

The march comes in the wake of a non binding backbench motion in Parliament last week where 219 to 1 voted to halt the ongoing pilot culls [1]. The motion stated that the pilot culls had "decisively failed" and followed revelations that culls in Somerset and Gloucester had failed to shoot the target number of badgers and also failed to meet humaneness criteria.