Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Dales star Nick: Stop burning our moors
Actor demands total ban on heather fires that ‘damage the environment’
EMMERDALE star Nick Miles has called for a ban on the “archaic” practice of burning moorland, revealing he feels “heartbroken” when he sees fires near his home.
The actor, 58, who’s played Jimmy King for 17 years, lives in the Yorkshire Dales, surrounded by moors which are burned to encourage new growth of heather to feed grouse reared for shooting.
He said: “A few weeks ago my village disappeared under a blanket of smoke.
“We are told not to burn wood in our stoves but we see them setting fire to heather which damages the environment. It depresses me every time I see it.
“It is heartbreaking when you are on top of a hill and see five different fires with emissions going up into the atmosphere and knowing underneath it is a deep peat bog, a vital sink for carbon.”
On Wednesday, we reported on a battle in Yorkshire between campaigners who say the fires are an ecological disaster and gamekeepers who say burning heather is harmless.
Nick, who has lived in West Witton, within the Yorkshire Dales National Park, for more than 10 years, has called for a complete ban on the burning.
He has written to his MP Rishi Sunak but said his plea fell on deaf ears, despite the COP26 climate conference being hosted in Glasgow in November.
He said: “How do we go to COP26 wagging our fingers about other countries’ wildlife when we are slaughtering our own for a few shooters?
“I would like to see it go altogether. We need much more biodiversity.”
Environment minister Zac Goldsmith, who sits in the Lords, has said peat burning will be “phased out”. But Nick said: “I am worried because Zac Goldsmith promised to do something about it and has done nothing.
“He sits in the House of Lords which is full of landowners who want to carry on doing it. It is so archaic. It is bonkers.”
In January, the Government announced a burning clampdown. But the Wildlife and Countryside Link, a coalition of 57 organisations, says its proposed ban will not cover 70% of upland peat areas.
Nick is also passionate about kites and fears birds of prey are being affected. There was a reintroduction programme in Harewood, the village where Emmerdale is filmed, and he said spotting kites was once common, but he now no longer sees them.
Amanda Anderson, director of the Moorland Association, said: “The controlled burning of heather is a skilled practice. It only takes place in the right place at the right time for the right reasons. The latest science shows it can have a positive impact on carbon capture.”
I would like to see it go. It’s so archaic. It’s bonkers ACTOR NICK MILES ON HEATHER BURNING