Burnham & Highbridge Weekly News - local news, sport, jobs, cars, what's on, homes, travel, weather

£3million horse refuge could be near Yeovil

From the Yeovil Express, first published Saturday 8th Apr 2006.

THE International League for the Protection of Horses is looking for a new recovery and rehabilitation centre between Yeovil and Taunton.

The charity is hoping to build a £3million refuge for horses in the South-West and is looking for a green field site, an established farm or equestrian centre to convert.

Charity secretary Richard Felton said the charity is willing to spend £700,000 on a green field site of around 200 acres of well-drained pasture, ideally with hedgerows or fencing. Then £2.5 million will be spent to create a state-of-the-art rehabilitation centre.

Another option is spending up to £2million on an existing equestrian property or farm with stables for up to 50 horses, a hay or straw barn, an indoor school and isolation yard for at least 10 horses and accommodation for conversion to a tack room, rug store, feed room, veterinary room, staff room and toilets.

The base would also need to have buildings for a visitor centre with a caf, shop, lecture theatre, toilets and car parking, as well as access to main roads and motorways. Tony Tyler, director of the ILPH's UK operations, said: "We need this new centre to increase our current capacity and coverage of the South-West and South of England. Two years ago we closed our centre in Surrey.

"The new centre would replace our existing operation in Herefordshire as Glenda Spooner Farm has access problems and cannot be expanded."

The ILPH receives over 10,000 welfare calls involving horses every year to its welfare hotline 0870 871 1927. These are investigated by field officers.

Advice is given where possible to put the situation right, but around 250 horses every year are taken into the charity's centres in Aberdeenshire, Herefordshire, Lancashire and Norfolk for rehabilitation.

They are later re-homed and there are currently 2,000 on the ILPH loan scheme. For more information, or if anyone can help, call Phil Spiby on 01953-497205.

Archive Home