ARMY chiefs revealed today that walkers have stayed away from the danger zone around York firing ranges, since The Press reported warnings that they risked being accidentally shot.

They said if the dramatic improvement continues, they can shelve controversial plans to fence off the 680-acre area.

An Army spokesman thanked the newspaper and other media for their coverage last week of the problem of people straying into the zone.

Officers revealed then that seven walkers had been caught trying to enter the danger area in the previous seven days, putting their own lives at risk and forcing the army to halt firing training sessions.

They said the problem threatened to disrupt troops preparing for deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Spokesman John Salisbury-Baker said today that the situation had been transformed since the story had been covered, and people had been made aware of the problem.

"There has been a 100 per cent improvement," he said.

"We have not had a single person entering the area so far."

He added that when walkers had been spoken to over recent days, they had said they were quite willing to stay out of the danger zone when firing was taking place, now they fully understood the risks.

Officers said last week that the problem of stray walkers had become so bad recently that sentries had had to be posted at main access points to stop them in their tracks.

Mr Salisbury-Baker said today the situation would continue to be monitored and if the improvements continued, it was hoped that the sentries could be dispensed with.

Officers said last week that they were looking into the legalities of fencing off the danger area if the problems continued.

The proposal was attacked by a Haxby man who said he had been walking his dogs on the common for the past 40 years, and claimed the fence would go up "over my dead body." He claimed the army was trying to restrict access in breach of rights of common rights of access.

But Mr Salisbury-Baker said the fencing proposal could now be put on the back-burners if walkers continued to stay away during firing.