WEST Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has appealed to the Government not to try to impose any new constraints on the traditional burning of moorland, a practice known as swaling.

With the swaling season about to get underway, Mr Liddell-Grainger said the practice was essential to good upland management and also delivered major benefits for wildlife.

MPs have this week been debating the issues arising from the burning of peat moors in Yorkshire, including the problems of poor air quality caused by smoke drifting into towns and villages.

During the debate, Labour MP Olivia Blake said moorland burning was ‘bad for the environment, bad for the climate crisis’.

Environment Minister Robbie Moore said the Government was exploring adding air pollutants from moorland practices to the national atmospheric emissions inventory.

But Mr Liddell-Grainger, whose constituency includes two-thirds of Exmoor, said it should not prevent Exmoor farmers continuing a practice that had been established locally when the moor was first reclaimed 200 years ago and, indeed, dated back thousands of years.

He said: “There was an attempt by Natural England to greatly reduce and even halt swaling on Exmoor some years ago and the only result of that was the creation of huge stands of gorse two or more metres tall, a huge fire risk in summer and which eventually had to be cut down by the use of highly-polluting, diesel-powered machines.

“Then, there was the discovery that if you restrict swaling, uncontrolled bracken and heather will choke off vegetation favoured by heath fritillaries with the result that the butterflies will disappear - as they did.

“In those areas where swaling has been restarted, heath fritillaries have returned in huge numbers, which in my book suggests that 10 generations of practical experience outweigh any degree in land management.”

Mr Liddell-Grainger said there were parallels with what had happened on the Somerset Levels a decade ago.

He said: “There again, we had the example of a Government agency, in that case the Environment Agency, thinking it knew best and declaring that the dredging of rivers which had been carried on for 800 years was no longer necessary, and stopped it.

“That decision unleashed the most devastating floods in three centuries on the local population.

“Swaling is an invaluable land management tool.

“The ash fertilises the otherwise poor soil, the regrowth provides valuable grazing for livestock, and controlled burning in spring greatly reduces the risk of catastrophic summer fires.

“I suggest the Government, as it has now done on the Levels, leaves the local farmers to manage their land as they know best.”