Sheffield Greens call for police to cut ties with shooting lobby after 'misleading' school event

Sheffield Greens have urged South Yorkshire Police to cut ties with shooting lobbyists in schools due to controversial claims about conservation.

Councillor Peter Garbutt wrote to South Yorkshire Police chief constable Lauren Poultney, calling on her to review a partnership with the British Association of Shooting and Conservation.

The two organisations teamed up with gamekeepers, landowners and others for the Let’s Learn Moor event, attended by children from six junior schools, including Stannington.

Police set up rural crime scenes and discussed fly-tipping, egg stealing, dogs attacking farm animals and the dangers of open water.

Officers reported that ‘local game keepers’ showed how they ‘manage the heath and moorland’ and children had ‘a chance to eat grouse’.

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Coun Garbutt said he was concerned none of the groups spoke about the damage of driven grouse shooting, including smoke pollution and flooding due to heather burning, damage to peat, ‘an important carbon sink’ and the need to re-wild large areas to combat climate change.

He was also concerned that ‘children have been fed grouse meat that may have significant levels of lead from shot’.

He wrote: ‘We are concerned that the absence of any balancing local environmental lobby or special interest groups is likely to create a misleading impression in children’s minds that the status quo is sustainable’.

And ‘endorsement from South Yorkshire Police would serve only to reinforce this impression’.

Mr Garbutt said the BASC had the political aim of promoting grouse shooting. But the police were ‘required to be above politics in all matters’.

A South Yorkshire Police spokeswoman stated the ‘BASC works with landowners to do conservation work’.

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She added: “We understand that everyone has their own views on the topic of moorland management and grouse shooting and our role as police officers is not to agree or disagree with such views.

“The role of our officers, especially those who work on our Neighbourhood Policing Teams, is to support, educate and where necessary pursue justice when people break the law.

“In relation to BASC and the activities they host for children, we understand that the purpose is to educate young people on how to use the moors and rural countryside safely, and understanding what rural crime looks like and how to prevent themselves and their families accidentally getting involved in crime, such as letting their dogs loose to attack sheep or disturb nesting birds etc.

“It also gives young people a chance to see how the moorlands and countryside are managed as BASC work with landowners to do conservation work, which is vital for many reasons and this is expressed to the children during the visit. Firearms do not feature in the programme delivered to the children.”

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Gareth Dockerty, BASC head of uplands, said: “Educating future generations about the multiple shooting disciplines and shooting’s significant role in conservation is a key objective."

A spokeswoman for Sheffield City Council said they had banned blood sports on their land in 1982. And a ban on moorland burning had been in place ‘for at least 10 years’.

The Peak District’s biggest landowners, Yorkshire Water, United Utilities and the National Trust, have also banned burning.

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