A cull is to take place on Ilkley Moor where a shooting ban has led the grouse population to soar.

Professional beaters will be called in by Bradford Council to drive birds on to privately-owned adjoining moors where grouse shoots still take place.

The shooting ban was introduced seven years ago by the then Labour-controlled Council to improve public safety on the popular public beauty spot.

There are now fears, however, that the moor's grouse population could be wiped out by disease unless their numbers are reduced.

Today, the Council's executive member for the environment, Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, said while using beaters was the only option this year other options including shooting would be considered in future.

But the move, revealed on the 'The Glorious Twelfth', the traditional start of the grouse shooting season, has been condemned by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

RSPB conservation officer Tim Melling, who covers the Bradford area, said high numbers of grouse chicks did not survive and there were natural predators, including foxes.

"It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard to say you are shooting to protect the species," he said.

But Coun Hawkesworth insisted that action was needed. She said: "A careful check is kept on the grouse numbers and they have definitely increased. There is now a real risk of disease.

"They will have to be managed to get the balance right. This was warned about when a decision was made to stop shooting on Ilkley in 1997.

"With no form of culling you will finish up with over-stocking and the birds will become prone to disease. There is the potential for wiping out the grouse population."

She said there were now dozens of breeding pairs and with each having five or six young grouse it had led to there being hundreds of the birds on the moor.

Danny Jackson, the Council's countryside and rights of way manager, said the large numbers of grouse meant some could become weaker and prone to Strongylosis caused by a parasite worm.

Officers were keeping a close eye because it could spread through the population, he said.

Later this year it is planned to drive mainly older birds on to Burley and Bingley moors which are owned by Edward Bromet, who is a committee member of the national Moorland Association and its South Pennine representative.

Mr Bromet said he believed it would be necessary for shooting to be resumed in future on Ilkley Moor to conserve a healthy grouse population.

"It is a very well managed moor and there has been no shooting for a number of years," he said.

"The grouse have increased and there comes a time when you have too many.

"If they don't have shooting now disease would be likely to spread through the grouse and the population would completely crash and take a long time to come back."

The Moorland Association predicted today that Britain's grouse shooters would have a good season despite the roller coaster of weather conditions.

During April and May the weather was dry and warm when the red grouse lay their eggs. But newly-hatched chicks had had to endure unseasonably cold air and heavy rain for much of June.