The government have announced a marvellous loophole in the current access restrictions, as long as you’re willing to spend obscene amounts of money blowing fat birds out of the sky.
Yes you guessed it, according to Farmers Weekly Interactive the government has eased access restrictions on moorland in the run up to the grouse blasting “Glorious Twelth”. To qoute FWI “Moor owners can apply for licences allowing unlimited shooting in areas more than three miles (4.8km) from infected farms, instead of the previous 10km.”

Shooting is a surprisingly large industry, but it’s nowhere near as large as the outdoor industry the government has been quite happy to strangle for the past 5 months. Obviously fleece and Gore-Tex doesn’t have the political power that tweed does. All we can hang onto is the strong claims from DEFRA that today is D-Day in terms of banning blanket access restrictions in most of the country, though what pressure will be brought to bear on “closing councils” who have already ignored the advice of the NFU and MAFF / DEFRA remains to be seen.

Obviously we’ll let you know as soon as possible, but until then we suggest you pull on some woollen britches, top up your hip flask and ride up onto the moors with a licence to kill.