Not a single person was prosecuted in Sussex last year under anti-fox-hunting legislation, it has been revealed.

Campaigners branded the bill “a massive waste of police time” after it was revealed just 33 fines and 11 cautions were handed out across the country in 2010.

Since the ban was introduced in 2005, there have been clashes between pro and anti-hunt campaigners, with police called to incidents involving saboteurs at the Crawley and Horsham Hunt.

The Countryside Alliance claims just four people have been fined under the legislation in Sussex since 2005, all in 2009.

Alice Barnard, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said: “With the opening meets of the hunting season just around the corner, these statistics are a damning indictment of the expensive and failed Hunting Act.”

Four people accused of illegal fox hunting in Sussex, are due in court on November 10.

Many of Sussex’s Tory MPs would be expected to support overturning the ban, including Bexhill and Battle MP Greg Barker, West Worthing MP Peter Bottomley, and Bognor Regis and Littlehampton MP Nick Gibb, having previously backed the Countryside Alliance’s campaign.

But Hove MP Mike Weatherley, who leads a small group of Conservative parliamentarians opposed to the act’s repeal, said: “The legislation is working.

"There is far less cruelty to foxes than there was before.”