Midhope Moors: Yorkshire landowner fined after gamekeepers burned peat moorland in Site of Special Scientific Interest without permission

The Crown Prosecution Service has released details of the case against Dunlin Ltd after they appeared at Sheffield Magistrates Court this week in relation to the incident on Midhope Moors, near Stocksbridge, in October 2022.

The Midhope Estate is within the Dark Peak Site of Special Scientific Interest, the South Pennie Moors Special Area of Conservation and the Peak District Moors Site of Protection Area.

Peatland vegetation can be legally burned as part of controlled land management, but a licence is needed before this can take place.

The CPS said: “The land agents acting for Dunlin, JM Osbourne Rural and Sporting, applied for a licence to the Peatland Protection Policy Team of the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 30 March 2022.

"However, it was refused as they hadn’t given enough detail about the amount of land to be burned. Detailed feedback was given to help with any future applications. No further application was made.

"On 18 October 2022, a conservation officer from the RSPB was visiting the area and noticed plumes of smoke coming from the land.

"He took photographs and video footage and sent this and a report to the Peatland Protection Policy Team. Inspectors visited the land a few weeks later and found evidence of the offences."

Dunlin Ltd director Julian Richmond-Watson said in interview that his gamekeepers had carried out the burning without him realising an applicaton had been made for a licence.

This week, the company entered guilty pleas to six offences in contravention of the Heather and Grass etc Burning Regulations 2021 and a fine of £1,800 was handed to Dunlin Ltd. Costs of £125 and a surcharge of £720 were also imposed.

Sentencing, Judge Gould said the offending had a significant environmental impact and there was a reckless failure by the company.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Maqsood Khan of the fraud and rural crime unit said: “This is the first case of its kind to come to come to this unit of the Crown Prosecution Service. The legislation around this offending is relatively new.

“The company was clearly reckless as to the impact of their actions in burning this land.

“Land agents acting for them made an application to legally burn areas of vegetation so they were clearly aware that they needed one. When the licence was refused, they simply went ahead and did it anyway.

“The actions damaged an area of land that is already at risk and undermined the regulatory system in place to protect areas of special scientific interest.

“The company is now paying the price.”