Tag Archives: Walshaw Moor Estate

Natural England’s situation is hopeless, says Walshaw Moor monitor as Defra rejects legally binding targets for moorland restoration

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Upper Calderdale Wildlife Group says the situation with Natural England is hopeless following Defra’s recent rejection of Natural England’s recommendation to set legally binding, strong targets for improving conditions at Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

The quango’s ability to protect Walshaw Moor, above Hebden Bridge, was already limited.

With its budget slashed over the past decade and a half by central government, Natural England hasn’t had the staff to monitor the Walshaw Moor Estate Site of Special Scientific Interest – even though, as a Natura 2000 site, the grouse shooting moor is supposed to have the highest level of conservation protection.

Walshaw Moor is one of the rare areas of upland blanket bog in the UK, and as such, should be protected as a vital carbon sink on a par with tropical rainforest. But its management for intensive driven grouse shooting is at odds with protecting this vital habitat, and the wildlife it should support.

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Lots of questions about proposed peatland burning legislation

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Ban the Burn is underwhelmed by Defra’s 29th January press release about proposed legislation to prevent the burning of heather and other vegetation on protected blanket bog habitats.

The UK government has been forced to legislate after it was clobbered by the EU Commission’s legal case – initiated by the RSPB and Ban the Burn back in 2012/13 – for not enforcing EU wildlife and habitats protection laws on Walshaw Moor Estate and other EU-protected uplands.

The UK government’s first response was to introduce a voluntary ban, to be signed by grouse moor owners and managers of EU-protected sites. Grouse moor owners and managers declined (including Richard Bannister, owner of Walshaw Moor Estate Ltd. HIs refusal to sign the voluntary ban caused Natural England to replace the existing land management agreement with the 2017-2042 Catchment Restoration Plan.)

So far information is sketchy. Apparently the detail of the proposed legislation in England will be published in April, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (UK).

In the meantime, here are our immediate questions and comments.

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Only the public is monitoring Walshaw Moor Estate’s compliance – or not – with its legally binding Catchment Restoration Plan

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In October 2020, Ban the Burn made a formal complaint to Natural England about their failure to investigate 8 examples of Walshaw Moor Estate’s burning of sphagnum and apparently unconsented infrastructure construction that we’d first reported in June 2019, and supplemented in March 2020 with information about the Estate’s construction of 10 more new grouse butts that year.

Natural England has not acknowledged our complaint.

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Farcical Villiers visit to flood-stricken Calder Valley

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Over the weekend, Calder Valley again suffered horrendous flooding – the fourth in eight years.

When Ban the Burn heard that Theresa Villiers, the Defra Sec of State, would be doing a walkabout in central Mytholmroyd on Wednesday between 9am and 10am, we called Craig Whittaker’s constituency office to say we would like to talk to her.

We wanted to ask when the government is bringing in promised legislation to ban peatland burning and to make sure it has no loopholes or exemptions that would allow burning to continue.

They agreed it would be appropriate for us to talk to her.

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Natural England to investigate grouse shooters’ unconsented burning and infrastructure construction on Walshaw Moor

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Natural England is to investigate a grouse-shooting estate’s recent burning of sphagnum moss and apparently unconsented construction of infrastructure on the highly-protected Natura 2000 site of Walshaw Moor, above Hebden Bridge.

Walshaw Moor Estate has undertaken these actions in order to intensify their industrial-scale grouse shooting business.

Natural England has agreed to investigate Walshaw Moor Estate’s:

  • apparent deepening and widening of ditches that they’ve been paid to block, on Heather Hill blanket bog
  • unconsented construction of steps up to newly constructed grouse shooting butts in deep peat/blanket bog adjacent to Hole Sike
  • apparently unconsented construction of a tarmac car park
  • burning which destroyed sphagnum moss
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Start of grouse moor burning season – please report all burning to RSPB

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• Grouse moor burning is now banned on blanket bog

• The burning season started on 1st October and runs until 15th April

• Please report all burning you see to Valerie.Wheeler@RSPB.org.uk – if possible with photos, videos and location info.

Grouse estates burn the moors to engineer optimal breeding habitat for red grouse – for their own profit.

A recent RSPB blog post reports that in June 2019, Natural England revoked agreements for grouse moors to burn over blanket bog.

We need to keep an eye out on the moors to see if the landowners respect this limitation on burning.

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Big Hebden Bridge call for Yorkshire Water to stop grouse shooting on its land

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Ban the Burn was one of 17 groups across Yorkshire that took part in Yorkshire Water Day of Action on 25th May, organised by StopThe Shoot.

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People queued up at the Ban the Burn stall in St George’s Square to sign petition  cards to Yorkshire Water’s Chief Executive Officer, saying they want an end to grouse shooting on the water company’s land. All 100 cards were signed in just over an hour. Continue reading →

Blanket Bog 1: Walshaw Moor Estate 0. Stone and timber access tracks won’t be built

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The Walshaw Moor Estate proposed new stone and timber track across protected blanket bog will not go ahead, even though Natural England had included it in its Appropriate Assessment of the 2017 version of the Catchment Restoration Plan 2017 – 2042. This Assessment concluded that

“it can be ascertained that the plan or project will not have an adverse effect on the integrity of the Moors SAC and SPA either alone or in combination.”

But in 2019 Natural England had to change its assessment of the track and remove it from the Catchment Restoration Plan.

This was thanks to:

On 19th March this year, Walshaw Moor Estate emailed Calderdale Council Planning Services to withdraw their APPLICATION 18/00237/FUL.

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Walshaw Moor Estate resumes burning – despite flood risk to Hebden Bridge

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As is by now widely known, Walshaw Moor Estate’s annual burning on the protected “Natura 2000” uplands creates an increased risk of flooding in Calder Valley towns.

This is responsible for around 2.5-5% of the peak flow in Hebden Bridge during floods – roughly the difference between over-topping flood barriers in shop and home doorways, and staying below that level. Continue reading →

New Durham University study finds ANY burning on Walshaw Moor Estate increases flood risk in Hebden Bridge

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A new modelling study and investigation into how annual burning on the Walshaw Moor Estate (WME) may affect high river flows in Hebden Bridge has shown that the most effective way of managing the moors in order to reduce the peak flow at Hebden Bridge is to eliminate burning and encourage conservation and restoration of Sphagnum. Over time, this will allow sphagnum to replace some or much of the cotton and moorland grasses and heather.

Practiced over the whole Hebden Water catchment, this management for sphagnum restoration would reduce the peak flow at Hebden Bridge by between 5%-10%.

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