The BBC has upheld a complaint from a viewer after a League Against Cruel Sports supporter wrote to BBC One’s North West Tonight highlighting the inaccuracy of their claim that this year’s Waterloo Cup attracted ‘record crowds’.

The BBC’s head of programme complaints, Fraser Steel, wrote to the viewer seven months after the complaint was made (Thursday 23 September) saying the claim’s source ‘might reasonably be thought to have an interest in giving the impression that the event was a success’ and that the producer now accepts that the source of this claim should have been included in the report. He goes on to say, ‘on that basis, I am upholding your complaint’.

Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports commented: “I am disappointed that the BBC made the claim without checking its accuracy. In the 1800s crowds of 75,000 may have turned up. In our educated modern society a small minority of just a few thousand turn out to revel in the suffering and death of British wildlife. The vast majority of the population wants a ban, MPs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Hunting Bill and hare coursing is on track to become illegal before the next Waterloo Cup.”

A number of League Against Cruel Sports supporters have complained to the BBC this year regarding biased pro-hunt reporting. Months later many are still waiting for a response.