Judge orders police shooting range near Simcoe shut down

Sgt. Jim Olsen, from The Lethbridge Police Service, fires a repurposed Remington 870 shotgun at the police training firing range in Lethbridge, Alta., on Friday, February 26, 2016. (David Rossiter/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

A judge has ordered Norfolk County to shut down an OPP firing range northeast of Simcoe and pay more than $60,000 to a farm neighbouring the range.

The range has existed since the 1980s.

In recent years, the owners of a nearby lavender farm and winery have been finding stray bullets from the range on their property.

After other efforts to get the issue addressed failed, they took their case to the courts – where a judge found that the range didn’t comply with local bylaws when it was created, and has a significant impact on the surrounding community.

The judge granted an injunction to shut down the range, and ordered the county to pay the neighbours a total of $60,237.72.