NORTH YORKSHIRE field sports enthusiasts are set to take dozens of working dogs to Westminster tomorrow to protest against an outright ban on hunting.

The Countryside Agency lobby will take place in Parliament Square during the third reading of the controversial Hunting Bill.

The Bill had originally allowed hunting to continue under a strict licence, but was amended to an outright ban by anti-hunt MPs last week.

The legislation has now been re-examined by a Parliamentary committee and is certain to clear its final hurdle in the Commons in a vote tomorrow night.

But hunt supporters want to show the battle has only just begun and will mass 1,000 hounds, lurchers, terriers, and gundogs outside.

The dogs would be "surplus to requirements" if the ban is enforced and would face being killed.

James Holt, of Sinnington Hunt, said he expected representatives to attend, and Frank Houghton Brown, of Middleton Hunt, believed individual field sports enthusiasts from North Yorkshire would go down to the capital with their dogs to join in the lobby.

Campaigners want Peers to block the legislation, which will be sent to the House of Lords after the third reading.

Ministers will then be put under pressure to ditch the Bill - rather than force it through using the Parliament Act. The demonstration will be backed by a campaign of public harassment of Government Ministers whenever they make an appearance anywhere in the country.

The alliance is setting up a full-time unit with the task of organising the "hounding of Ministers".

The unit will have responsibility for obtaining information on the whereabouts of Government figures and deploying instant protests.

Using teams of activists across the country, the unit will aim to organise demonstrations with as little as ten minutes notice.

Initially the targets will be Alun Michael, the Rural Affairs Minister who failed to win support for the licensing scheme, and Environment Minister Elliot Morley.

But the alliance warned the protests could be extended across Government and even into the expected 2005 General Election campaign.

"We can get out more activists during an election campaign than any of the political parties," a spokesman said.

During last week's vote York's Hugh Bayley, Selby's John Grogan and Scarborough's Lawrie Quinn, along with Harrogate's Phil Willis, helped anti-hunt MPs to a 362 to 154 victory in favour of an outright ban. The county's Tory MPs, John Greenway (Ryedale) and Anne McIntosh (Vale of York), opposed the move.

Updated: 10:52 Tuesday, July 08, 2003