Councillor defends grouse shoot policy
From the Bradford T&A
A senior councillor has criticised anti-hunt campaigners who demonstrated outside Bradford’s City Hall against the award of a council contract for grouse shooting on Ilkley Moor.
The protesters have petitioned Bradford Council to reverse the gran-ing of the ten-year licence.
But the Council’s executive member for environment and culture, Coun Anne Hawkesworth, said: “The recent actions of some demonstrators from the West Yorkshire Hunt Saboteurs have been misleading and misguided.
Our repsonse: Anne Hawksworth has always, up until now, remained adament that she has had no involvement in the grouse shooting proposals – maybe she’s had to succumber to us dragging her name through the mud and exposing the lies her council are putting out to get this shoot to go ahead
“Allegations have been made by them that are totally untrue. We have a ludicrous situation whereby we have a grouse moor with no grouse because it isn’t being managed for that purpose.
Our repsonse: Before the shooting contract was awarded, Hawksworth claimed it was needed as there were too many grouse on the moor, now she’s changed it to there are too little. Before speaking out in public, she ought to get her facts right! The allegations of West Yorkshire Hunt Saboteurs, and the groups we have worked with, are all backed up by environmental scientists and undercover invesigations into the shooting industry. Legally, we have to get everything we publish spot-on so we are not taken to court for slander and the simple fact that we don’t have to make things up to get people on our side (unlike certain people…)
“The facts are clear. The Bingley Moor Partnership has been licensed to drive grouse on Ilkley Moor since 2004.
“The Council’s procurement service put the shooting agreement for Ilkley Moor out to tender earlier this year.
“The Bingley Moor Partnership won the tender in open competition because of the management of the moors it was able to offer. The lease is signed, sealed and delivered. This is a legally-binding agreement.
Our repsonse: Any company, or organisation, (especially a council) can go back on a contract if there is something that is of significance and has not come to light until after it has been signed. There are counctless issues, both ethical and legal based, that are now in the public domain for example the “extremely close working relationship” Edward Bromet of the Bingley Moor Partnership had built up with the council inorder to try and gain the contract, and the simple fact that it was a ‘done deal’ before the adverts for tenders were even put out!
“This new ten-year lease is enabling increased investment into the moor, therefore boosting the local rural economy.
Our repsonse: The tourism trade in Ilkley and Wharfedale, EU & Special Scientific Interest (SSI) grants, to name a few ways, have a massive input into the area and the money made through grouse shooting wouldn’t go to the people living in Ilkley, but the Bingley Moor Partnership (the manager of which doesn’t even live in the same county!) and £8,000 a year to Bradford Council – this could easily be made up through the means mentioned above.
“The land management that goes with grouse-shooting, such as heather burning and bracken control, drainage management and sheep farming, is one of the practices which ensures the moorland is maintained to the best possible standard.”
Our repsonse: Sheep farming has always occurred on Ilkley Moor as it had been in the land rights for over a decade, bracken control can be done on any more (whether grouse or otherwise) and heather burning is only conducted to make an artificially high grouse population for shooting – the effects of which damage both the land and the environment on a large scale. Drainage has also been done in the area for a substantial amount of time. Why doesn’t Hawksworth invest their most recent grant into the moor, instead of resurfacing a road which will only benefit those conducting grouse shooting on the land!
