"OVER my dead body."

That was a dog walker's reaction today to news that army chiefs are looking into fencing off 680 acres of common land around firing ranges near York.

Peter Coates, 63, of Haxby, has been walking his pets on Strensall Common for 40 years without coming to any harm.

He claims fencing off the land would breach historic rights of access to the common.

"It seems they are deliberately trying to stop people walking on Strensall Common," he said.

Mr Coates spoke out after army officers told of their increasing concerns for the safety of walkers who were going into areas near ranges during firing sessions, where they could be hit by stray or ricochetting bullets.

The officers told The Press on Friday how they were looking into the legalities of erecting a fence around the danger area. They claimed some walkers were ignoring requests to stay clear of the danger zone, forcing firing training sessions to be suspended.

They said there had been seven such incursions in the past seven days, and one such walker had been visited by Ministry of Defence police officers after being traced to his home.

Mr Coates contacted The Press to say he was the walker being referred to, but claimed he had only gone into the end of the so-called danger area where he was nearly two miles beyond the stop butts used on the ranges.

He said there were many trees between him and the ranges, and he was at no greater risk than someone standing, for example, on a nearby golf course or visiting a nearby farm shop.

He felt the danger zone was unnecessarily restrictive and questioned the accuracy of the army's calculations.

He said two men had come rushing up to him when he was walking on the common, telling him to stop, but he had no idea who they were and had simply carried on walking.

He said that after later being spoken to by the MoD police, he had agreed to try to avoid the zone, but he still felt the army was being too restrictive.

An army spokesman denied that it wanted to restrict access to the common, and said the fence option would only be pursued if people could not be persuaded to stop going into the danger area during firing sessions.

"We encourage people to go on to the common," he claimed. He defended the accuracy of the calculations used to decide which parts of the common were at risk during firing, saying they had been made by experts.