Natural England’s restrictions on vegetation management could lead to flames engulfing Yorkshire - Andrew Gilruth

How big is the problem we face on our hillsides? A study funded by the RSPB found that in 2021 there was a sudden increase in areas where heather was not being managed by either winter burning or mowing. What caused this?

Enter the well-intentioned policymakers up the road at the Natural England headquarters in York. They have decreed that land managers should drastically reduce the ancient practice of winter burning of heather over deep peat. Very sensible in that there is a minor risk of heather burning during wet winter months getting out of control. And very stupid in that, year in year out, this is leading to a massive increase in fuel loads on the hills near you.

Experts are worried that these fuel loads present an exponential risk. A report for the Peak District National Park has spoken of “the frightening potential of fire… reaching extremes both in the rate of spread and flame lengths far beyond the capacity of control” of our fire services. They added: “Little can be done to control the topography of the area or the increasingly fire supportive weather, but fuel loading can be addressed.”

We have had warnings. Seven years ago there was the Saddleworth Moor disaster. It scarred our landscapes and caused irreparable damage to the sub-surface peat. Huge quantities of carbon were released.

Bad for the planet. And dreadful for people. The smoke poured over Greater Manchester with some five million people forced to breathe in pollution which included lead and cadmium deposited on the moors during the Industrial Revolution. Scientists said dozens died early because of the fumes.

Yet what caused it? The fire ignited on land where Natural England had a de facto ban on winter burns – the heather could only be managed once every 23 years. With the heather growing three inches a year this created such a fuel load that, when the inevitable fires came on both Saddleworth Moor and nearby Winter Hill, the Fire and Rescue Service simply could not cope. They had to let them burn out.

Yet instead of encouraging landowners to tackle these excessive fuel loads, Natural England has piled on restrictions on preventative burning which has been practiced around the world for millennia.

This is contrary to wisdom, ancient and modern. Last year, a Parliamentary briefing on wildfires explained that “older heather burns with greater intensity” and that to prevent wildfires “vegetation management must be conducted continuously”. Not every 23 years.

That was Westminster. At a Scottish Parliament’s hearing, a Fire & Rescue Services boss warned that just relying on mowing excess vegetation can “leave a dry layer that actually encourages the spread of fire” whereas winter burning “is by far the most effective because it removes a fuel in its entirety”.

So how come Natural England are doing the precise opposite of what the experts are saying?

Perhaps because neither Natural England nor the environment department, Defra, has a single in-house wildfire expert. This is why they come up with flawed alternatives such as planting sphagnum moss which often becomes so dry as to serve as tinder for any spark.

This tedious overregulation seems to be driven by ideological opposition to grouse moors and a pompous sense of bureaucratic self-importance. The Prime Minister and his deputy have already castigated Natural England for its overregulation. Now with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, looking for budget cuts, there are many in the countryside who would erupt into cheers if Natural England bore the brunt.

The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, might also raise a glass. For her department is responsible for putting out fires. With the horrors of Los Angeles fresh in her mind, she is aware of how the combination of bigger fuel loads and the UK’s sharply decreasing humidity makes wildfires ever more likely - and makes Natural England’s policy of adding fuel to the coming fires absurd.

This is a policy, made in York, that threatens the whole county. So, on behalf of the Moorland Association I have written to the

Home Secretary asking her to reverse Natural England’s restrictions on vegetation management and to make it the law for countryside fuel loads to be treated as seriously as those in cities. Flames and fumes are no respecter of the boundaries between rural and urban areas. All they need is a big fuel load, dry weather and a strong wind.

Andrew Gilruth is the chief executive of the Moorland Association.