CAMPAIGNERS will meet Hampshire Wildlife Trust today to try to persuade them to drop their ban on dogs running free at St Catherine's Hill.

Dog owners branded the move unnecessary and an infringement on their rights. The trust argues that the unfettered dogs pose a risk to the 100 sheep that are now grazing the 120-acre chalk grassland reserve.

Now the trust chief executive Sue Walton has agreed to meet the campaigners and city councillor Ian Tait at the office of MP Mark Oaten to discuss the issue.

The ban was lifted over Christmas because the sheep were again coralled in an enclosure.