Boundary Mill boss in battle of the moors (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Boundary Mill boss in battle of the moors

2:42pm Tuesday 7th February 2012 in Colne By Tyrone Marshall, Reporter

INQUIRY Walshaw Moor Estate

THE owner of East Lancashire retail giant Boundary Mill is taking on Natural England in a legal battle over his 16,000 acre land on the county border.

The Government’s conservation advisory body is seeking to stop the Walshaw Moor Estate, on the border of East Lancashire and West Yorkshire, from burning heather on the grouse moor.

The estate is owned by 50-year-old Richard Bannister, who owns the Boundary Mill empire, which has a store in Colne.

He said the move would have a significant impact on grouse shooting, and that Walshaw Moor was being used as a test case.

A five-week inquiry finished in Leeds last week, with Natural England trying to limit the burning of blanket bog to once every 25 years, instead of every 15-18 years as preferred by the estate.

A decision is expected in the new few weeks.

A spokesman for Yorkshire law firm Gordons, who are acting on behalf of the Walshaw Moor Estate, said: “The inquiry will consider important questions of moorland ecology, grazing and burning of heather for grouse rearing in areas of blanket bog and heathland habitats.”

Mr Bannister and his supporters claim that upland wildlife would decline and grouse shooting become unviable if the new rules were brought in.

He told a Sunday newspaper: “This is Natural England’s trigger to ban all burning of blanket bog in England.

“It would have huge ramifications for grouse moors and rural life.”

Walshaw Moor Estate either owns, or has the benefit of sporting rights leased to it over, approximately 6,475 hectares of Walshaw and Lancashire Moors which are mainly managed as driven grouse moors.