Wuthering Moors (55)

  Rumour has it that Natural England has agreed a highly contentious Moorland Plan with the Walshaw Estate – the famous grouse moor, owned by millionaire businessman Richard Bannister, which sits above Hebden Bridge. I wrote in this blog on 2 October 2017  ‘It remains to be seen whether NE will really dig their heels…

Let’s see the back of Craig Whittaker in Calder Valley

Calder Valley was the constituency that provided the most signatures for my e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. In fact it produced 871 (out of 123,077) signatures. The rival e-petition, supporting grouse shooting, accumulated just 31 signatures in Calder Valley (and only 25,322 overall). And yet Conservative MP for the Calder Valley, Craig Whittaker, spoke…

Flood risk at Hebden Bridge (Wuthering Moors 54)

Hebden Bridge in the Calder Valley has experienced terrible floods in recent years. Locals blame the severity of these floods on the intensive management of Walshaw Moor for driven grouse shooting. Now there appears to be some new scientific evidence to strengthen that view. In May 2014 I visited Hebden Bridge and spoke to the…

Wuthering Moors 53

I recently contacted Natural England  and asked them the following questions which they have been kind enough to answer as follows: Q1: Has NE’s James Cross met Richard Bannister of the Walshaw Moor Estate in 2016?   A1: Yes, he has, on 4th February 2016.   Q2: What was the subject of their meeting?  …