A beauty spot - a favourite haunt in his youth of former Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Healey of Riddlesden - could be ruined if a footpath is made an official route, the owner has warned.

Sunnydale Glen, East Morton, which is used as a partridge shoot, faces being churned up by motorcyclists if campaigners win their battle to get a footpath through the area made a right of way.

Woodland owner Lewis Robert-shaw, a retired farmer of Upwood Hall Farm Cottage, West Morton, said he would not be able to let the wood for the shoot - between September and February - because of the potential conflict with walkers. But he needed to maintain an income from the land and had already been approached by motorcycle clubs wanting to make it a regular trials location. Two trials sessions already took place each year, he said.

"I would be reluctant to do it, but I have to make a living from it," added Mr Robertshaw.

"Two clubs want to use it for motorcycle trials and a training ground. And I have been approached by a commercial motorcycle company who want to use it to demonstrate the bikes. It would knock the stuffing out of the wood."

Leading footpath campaigner Roy Willoughby, of Otley Mount, East Morton, said the motorcycle trials was a separate issue but still needed to be considered by the inspector.

"They have motorcycles there twice a year already and they make a terrible mess - they destroy the place. But motorcycles would not be allowed to use a designated footpath."

Footpath campaigners take their case to a public hearing at Keighley Town Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 9 and 10. Among their supporters is Labour statesman Lord Dennis Healey, 86, who lived in Riddlesden as a youth and walked in the wood between 1926 and 1945.

In a written statement to the hearing, he says it would be sad if the area was no longer accessible to the public.