CONTROVERSIAL plans to protect pheasant shoots by destroying buzzards’ nests and taking the protected birds of prey into captivity have been dropped.

Ministers say they will look at other ways of controlling buzzards “in the light of public concerns expressed”.

We welcome the U-turn by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), having called for it in this column a week ago.

It was a clearly daft proposal which was bound to stir up protests and lead to suggestions that the Government was out of touch.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has described it as a “strong decision” which reflects the strength of public opinion.

At a time when every penny in the public sector counts, how could Defra justify spending £375,000 on plans amounting to vandalism in the wild?

Buzzards have been a protected species for 30 years and are seen as a wildlife success story. Controlling them in primitive ways in the interests of sport and business would have been unacceptable.

Common sense has prevailed but the sadness is that there are people working for the Government who actually thought it was a good idea in the first place.

Pheasants are not renowned for their road-sense so more of them are killed by running in front of cars than fall victim to the natural instincts of the buzzard.

Will someone in Defra, therefore, hatch an expensive plan to remove cars from rural roads?