A vision for the future of one of Yorkshire’s most iconic open spaces will go to public consultation this summer. It includes provision for grouse shooting, which is currently licenced under a sporting deed to Bingley Moor Partnership until 2018. It restricts grouse shooting to eight days per season, and also restricts grouse moor management. The draft plan does not recommend either continuing or halting grouse shooting on the moor after 2018, but outlines the benefits having a deed in place offers - such as the presence of keepers providing protection against the threat of wildfire, which destroyed a large part of the moor in 2006. However, it does state that sporting rights on the moor “may be subject to change from time to time”, depending on whether the Council choose to continue to licence them. Campaigners opposing grouse shooting on the moor welcomed the decision to put the draft plan to public consultation. Ban Bloodsports on Ilkley Moor spokesperson Luke Steele said: “There is only one way to manage moorland for grouse shooting and that’s through intensively burning away and draining precious habitat, at the cost of our region’s wildlife and natural flood barrier. With some protected species, including hen harriers and peregrine falcons, now completely absent from Ilkley Moor it is clear grouse shooting and conservation cannot work hand-in-hand.”