AN EMMERDALE star joined a protest on Haworth Moor, urging Yorkshire Water to drop grouse shooting.

Accompanied by actor Nick Miles 60 campaigners from Ban Bloodsports on Yorkshire’s Moors (BBYM) held a protest on Saturday. (Dec 8)

They want Yorkshire Water to stop leasing moorland for grouse shooting, arguing this damages wildlife and habitat.

BBYM spokesman Luke Steele said: “Wuthering Heights fans will remember the moment Cathy presents a hen harrier feather she has collected on the moor to Heathcliff and teaches him to pronounce the bird’s name.

“Yet on the Haworth moors there are no more hen harriers, or many other sensitive breeding birds, because their moorland has been severely damaged by grouse shooting.

“There’s only one way to manage moorland for grouse shooting and that’s through purging uplands of native wildlife and burning away habitat, at the expense of biodiversity.”

Yorkshire Water referred the Keighley News to its shooting policy, which states: “As one of the region’s biggest landowners, we don’t have control over everything on our land.

“In some areas, while we own the land’s freehold, we don’t own shooting rights. Where we do own shooting rights, these are let out and are generally on long running historical agreements.

“This means we’re not in a position to control or prohibit shooting and associated activity.

“In areas where we do own shooting rights, we’ve historically taken the approach that working with stakeholders to agree a mutually beneficial approach to land management can achieve more than banning certain activities, including shooting.

“This approach is based on many years of experience of working on uplands across the region.”