t.cork@bepp.co.uk

A West council has taken the unprecedented step of banning anyone from serving or eating a legal food in any council building, after animal rights activists lobbied council chiefs.

The ban on foie gras, the French delicacy made from duck or goose livers, by Bath and North East Somerset council means that, for example, couples getting married in the council-owned Guildhall venue, or any other council properties, will be told they are not allowed to put foie gras on the menu for their guests.

Anyone hiring the venues will be told it can neither be served by caterers or eaten by guests, and outside caterers hired in to use the council's kitchens will have to sign a contract promising not to put it on any menu or plate. The ban will eventually extend to any private restaurants in the city centre that happen to lease their premises from the council, even though foie gras is freely available in supermarkets in the city. Council chiefs have admitted they cannot enforce the ban retrospectively to restaurants and caterers with an existing lease, when new leases come up or are renegotiated, the foie gras ban will be included.

The leader of Bath and North East Somerset council Paul Crossley said they were acting in response to local concern about the sale of foie gras on animal welfare grounds. Animal rights activists from the Bath Activist Network, joined by action group Viva!, have long campaigned against foie gras being served and eaten in Bath.

A council pledge not to serve it at the council's own functions wasn't enough, and a petition to see the council stopping other people serving it was drafted and signed by almost 2,000 people.

"Although Bath & North East Somerset council does not currently sell foie gras on its premises, we would like to reassure people we will not be doing so in the future," Mr Crossley said.

"Much of the industry is simply torture in a tin for the ducks force fed vast quantities of food through a metal tube so that their livers swell up to ten times their natural size. This is cruel, inhumane, and the so-called delicacy has no place in the council's current or future food sales.

"In relation to our commercial premises which are leased by third party caterers, future leases will contain a sub clause requesting them to ban the sale of foie gras, although we cannot retrospectively enforce a new clause in existing leases," he added.

The Bath Activist Network has long campaigned against foie gras in Bath. In 2009 they picketed a Spanish tapas restaurant, called Minibar, three times in nine months.

The chef and co-owner Alex Grant said at the time, that the foie gras industry had improved in recent years. "Foie gras is not as cruel as it used to be, it is not the same as it was 50 years ago," he said. "The ducks are free range, they have a good life."

Minibar, as of yesterday, were still offering duck liver pate on their menu.