News

NEW CHAIRMAN FOR THE MOORLAND ASSOCIATION

Tuesday 27th May 2008

Edward Bromet has been elected Chairman of the Moorland Association, taking overall responsibility for the direction and activities of this membership organisation representing the owners and managers of 750,000 of the 800,000 acres of heather moorland remaining in England and Wales. He replaces Simon Bostock who has retired after serving the Association as its Chairman for 7 years, but who will remain on the committee. George Winn-Darley will be the new Vice –Chairman.

Edward (39) is a partner at Wrigley’s firm of solicitors in Leeds. He specialises in capital tax planning, trusts and long term family asset protection for landed estates. He has been an active Moorland Association Committee member since 2001 and has served as the Association’s Representative for the moors in the South Pennines, the area between the Yorkshire Dales and Peak District National Parks. He is a founder member of the West Yorkshire Local Access Forum.

As one of the owners, he has successfully continued the management of the 4,500 acres of Bingley, Burley and Hawksworth Moors as a grouse shooting enterprise for the last 12 years, ploughing back any revenue into conservation. He has safeguarded and improved over 2,800 acres of heather moorland through the largest Countryside Stewardship Scheme in West Yorkshire protecting it from sheep overgrazing and bracken encroachment. The area is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and also a Special Protection Area (SPA) for exceptional birdlife such as Merlin, Curlew, Golden Plover, Stonechat and Ring Ouzel, which are all helped by its management as a grouse moor, including heather burning and predator control.

Said Edward Bromet: “I am committed to the future of our heather uplands and their wildlife and I am delighted to have been elected Chairman of the Moorland Association. In recent years moorland management for red grouse shooting has demonstrated its contribution to biodiversity, climate change mitigation, landscape value, access and recreation and the rural economy – a contribution now recognised by Government, its agencies and other upland landowners such as The National Trust, RSPB, water companies and Councils. Underpinned by the revenue created by driven grouse shooting, the Moorland Association members will continue to regenerate areas of heather moorland under threat and to optimise management techniques to fulfil the wide-ranging demands on this globally rare habitat - at little or no cost to the tax payer.