Dringhouses & Woodthorpe councillor Stephen Fenton has called on council bosses to take urgent action to enable the cattle that usually graze Hob Moor to be reintroduced.

The cattle were removed by the farmer earlier this week following an increasing number of incidents where cattle were escaping from the moor through the barriers into neighbouring residential streets. This was happening up to four times a day, which led to the livestock manager being called out on each occasion to round up the cattle and return them to the moor.

Earlier this week the council put in place some additional fencing around the barriers in the hope that it would discourage the cattle from approaching the exits from the moor, but it had no effect.

Cattle have grazed Hob Moor for many years, and their presence has been a key part of a ‘Higher Level Stewardship’ agreement between the council and Natural England. In previous years, cattle escapes have been a rare occurrence, but it seems likely that this year’s dramatic increase in escapes is a result of a failure to put mitigations in place following the removal of the restrictive ‘base plates’ from the barriers at the entrances to the moor.

Cllr Fenton believes that this situation was foreseeable and could have been avoided, and is calling for urgent action to be taken so that the cattle can be brought back on to the moor as soon as possible.

“As far back as April 2021 I was involved in a discussion with the livestock manager and council officers where a need was identified to lengthen the cattle grids if the barriers were to be amended to allow better access to the moor for all types of bicycles. The Hob Moor cattle grids are much shorter than those at Walmgate Stray for example, so this change seemed a relatively easy step to take to reduce the risk of cattle escapes after the base plates were removed.

“When the barrier base plates were removed in December 2021, the agreed mitigating measures had not been put in place. Councillors for Dringhouses & Woodthorpe and Westfield wards were told that this would be part of a second phase of work and were assured that efforts would be made to get this work done before the cattle came back on in April. It is very disappointing that this work hasn’t happened – if it had, recent events which have led to the cattle being removed from the moor could well have been avoided.”

Cllr Fenton has written to the Transport Executive Member, Cllr D’Agorne, and senior officers, asking for sight of the plans for the cattle grid lengthening. He has also asked whether any assessment was made of environmental impacts that might arise from the removal of the barrier base plates without any mitigating measures being put in place.

“Going forward, delivering the promised mitigation measures is the top priority, but there also needs to be much better engagement with local councillors and greater transparency around decision-making. For example, before the barrier alterations were made there could have been a public report detailing what was to be done, the steps to be taken to reduce the risk of motorbikes getting on to the moor and cattle getting off, and how any impacts would be monitored.”