Councillors have backed a report recommending the continuation of shooting rights on Ilkley Moor and efforts to improve relations between shoots and walkers.

Bradford Council’s Environment and Waste Management Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed to adopt recommendations in a draft report reviewing the Ilkley Moor Sporting Rights Deed.

Recommendations – ranging from an update to the Ilkley Moor Management Plan to calling on Bingley Moor Partnership to train its gamekeepers in public relations – will now be referred to the Council’s executive for endorsement.

The committee has also asked for a progress report monitoring all the recommendations in a year’s time.

The Council is the owner of the iconic moor.

As reported last week, the report to the committee highlighted concerns from Council officers and the Friends of Ilkley Moor about Bingley Moor Partnership gamekeepers being “aggressive and rude” to dog walkers during confrontations over keeping dogs on a lead on the moor.

The report includes recommendations for providing advance public warning about shoots taking place, and calls on the Bingley Moor Partnership, which operates shoots, to train its gamekeepers in dealing with members of the public.

Committee chairman, Councillor Martin Love (Green, Shipley), said: “We’re hoping that during this season, from August onwards, the Bingley Moor Partnership will do more publicity, and we’re also asking them to look at their gamekeepers’ behaviour towards members of the public.”

Members of the scrutiny committee have also endorsed recommendations to identify areas where walkers can let their dogs run free without disturbing ground-nesting birds.

Further recommendations include seeking consent from Natural England to extend the sporting lease for another five years, and ring fencing income from the sporting deed for moorland management work.

But the committee agreed to amend a recommendation on alternative methods for the control of bracken, having received clarification on the legal status on the use herbicide Asulam. The chemical was banned by the EU but has since been relicensed for use.