CATTLE which usually graze a York stray each summer have been removed by the farmer after they kept escaping into neighbouring residential streets.

Dringhouses & Woodthorpe councillor Stephen Fenton has called on City of York Council to take urgent action to allow the animals to return to Hob Moor.

He said the cattle were removed by the farmer following an increasing number of incidents in which cattle were escaping from the moor through barriers into neighbouring residential streets.

"This was happening up to four times a day, which led to the livestock manager being called out on each occasion to round up the cattle and return them to the moor," he said.

"Earlier this week, the council put in place some additional fencing around the barriers in the hope that it would discourage the cattle from approaching the exits from the moor, but it had no effect. Additional fencing installed by the council proved to be ineffective."

He said cattle had grazed Hob Moor for many years, and their presence had been a key part of a ‘Higher Level Stewardship’ agreement between the council and Natural England.

"In previous years, cattle escapes have been a rare occurrence, but it seems likely that this year’s dramatic increase in escapes is a result of a failure to put mitigations in place following the removal of the restrictive ‘base plates’ from the barriers at the entrances to the moor."

“As far back as April 2021 I was involved in a discussion with the livestock manager and council officers where a need was identified to lengthen the cattle grids if the barriers were to be amended to allow better access to the moor for all types of bicycles. "The Hob Moor cattle grids are much shorter than those at Walmgate Stray for example, so this change seemed a relatively easy step to take to reduce the risk of cattle escapes after the base plates were removed.

“When the barrier base plates were removed in December 2021, the agreed mitigating measures had not been put in place. Councillors for Dringhouses & Woodthorpe and Westfield wards were told that this would be part of a second phase of work and were assured that efforts would be made to get this work done before the cattle came back on in April.

"It is very disappointing that this work hasn’t happened – if it had, recent events which have led to the cattle being removed from the moor could well have been avoided.”

He said he had written to Transport Executive Member, Cllr Andy D’Agorne, and senior officers, asking whether any assessment was made of environmental impacts that might arise from the removal of the barrier base plates without any mitigating measures.