Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Planning and Transport, said in a statement from Bradford Council:“The lease for the Bingley Moor Partnership to grant shooting rights on Ilkley Moor expires in April 2018 and last night (Monday) Bradford Labour Group were not supportive of its renewal.
“Our new Ilkley Moor Management Plan sets out our approach to management of the moor regardless of whether or not grouse shooting takes place on the moor. Our focus is now on implementing the objectives of the plan to manage the heathland, increase tree coverage in appropriate areas, restore peat and blanket bog and reduce flood risk for the surrounding areas.”
And here is an interview on Farming Today (today) where the Bradford councillor clearly knew what he was talking about.
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these look like 1st class typical country folk … similar to jet ski owners in and around W Af tern br sites etc
Sorry I don’t follow.
Can you please translate?
I’m one of the people shown in the photo, and yes I do live in the country – very close to Ilkley Moor in fact, where I do fairly harmless rural pursuits including walking, trail running and birding.
Oh dear Cr…..where do we start? Perhaps here, a wee demonstration of where Ilkley Moor actually is, though, one would have thought the ‘Bradford Council’ bit might have provided something of a clue;
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=411201&y=445168&z=120&sv=ilkley+moor&st=3&tl=Map+of+Ilkley+Moor,+West+Yorkshire+%5BSummit%5D&searchp=ids.srf&mapp=map.srf
Note the grey areas, by ‘eck, they mean towns and cities, CR. That’s right, Ilkley Moor is surrounded by concentrations of housing, just like many, many Peninne Moors (ever been to one CR?) and country and town folk get to mingle, ‘appen. So it shouldn’t really come as too much of a surprise that some of the people the people you might encounter there might not quite fit the ‘1st class country folk’ image of your imagination (were you expecting something a bit more like this?; https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Thomas_Gainsborough_-_Mr_and_Mrs_Andrews.jpg/1200px-Thomas_Gainsborough_-_Mr_and_Mrs_Andrews.jpg ). Why, one of them is carrying a bally skate-a-ma-thingy, what’s he expect to bag with that? No CR these look precisely like the people I encounter when I’m out and about in my backyard; the moors of Northern England.
The interview on Farming Today was interesting. The council guy was up against BASC, who were very determined that this was a retrograde step and a waste of council money. But yes, the council guy did know his stuff.
The classic enlightening thought for the day in this interview came from the BASC spokesman, who informed us that “…some people with an anti-shooting agenda don’t like shooting.”
At least they don’t look like Victorian and Edwardian dressed retarded buffoons in tweed carrying guns and pretending to be locals.
BASC chap Gareth Dockerty didn’t help himself by making claims that the loss of shooting would be a “tragedy for conservation” and that those opposed to grouse slaughter were a “small minority whipping up hysteria”? They also assumed people were swayed by celebrity involvement. Sorry but I’ve never been impressed by spin bowlers
Hats off to the Bradford Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw who spoke out about moorland management myths as well as making it clear that they had looked into all the issues and made up their own minds. #Democracy in action at grassroots community level? Memories of National Trust AGM – democracy or manipulation?
I would love to know what these people mean by the word conservation. I can’t find any dictionary definition that refers to blasting the f..k out of absolutely everything with feather or fur so that you can blast away at more birds ( red grouse) and then claim that a totally different bird ( curlew) coincidentally happens to be doing better. It’s bizarre.
I loved the Councillor’s phlegmatic response to the repeated BASC suggestion that the elected representatives had somehow been misled into a bad decision by the whipped-up hysteria of a minority. Anyone less likely to be whipped into hasty action I can’t imagine. In the end it was the BASC person who sounded prone to hysteria.
I am sure the grouse on Ilkley Moor will be pleased with this decision especially those many grouse which end up not being killed but with serious injuries from the shot. Congratulations to Bradford Council. All being well this is another step to laying the many erroneous statements put about by the blood sport shooting fraternity and a step towards banning grouse shooting nationwide especially driven grouse shooting.
Does anyone know if this mater received any regional TV, newspaper or radio coverage? I hope so.
the BBC website hasn’t covered it, not even in their regional news sites
I like the way the councillor kept it real in the face of the shooting guy trying to whip up hysteria. Classic case of projection.
One can hope that other councils that allow shooting on public owned land, if they exist, will take stock of Bradford’s decision.
Dockerty repeatedly made the assertion that the Council had bowed to minority pressure (‘a small minority group causing hysteria’) without once offering any evidence. When directly challenged on this he chose to talk about the council land management plan, rather than addressing the question. He also made the usual unsubstantiated claim that land management by the shoot benefits habitats and species without challenge.
Congratulations to the campaigners and to the Council for ensuring that, on this occasion, publicly owned land will be managed for the public benefit and not for the benefit of a small minority group.