Popular Baildon Moor and picturesque Shipley Glen will re-open at last next Friday - after a blanket ban was imposed in February.

It will mean the re-opening of the greens at Baildon Golf Club, which has lost around £15,000 since the closure.

And ramblers, bikers, horse riders, and families who have been banned will be able to use the countryside once again.

But Bradford Council is keeping shut footpaths north of a line from Apperley Bridge to Oxenhope - including farms recently hit by foot and mouth in Silsden and Crag Top Farm on the outskirts of Keighley - until it is satisfied there is no further risk from the disease.

The authority is using its powers under Article 28 of the Foot and Mouth Disease Order 1983 to close the paths, although the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, is urging local authorities to open up the countryside.

But footpaths in the area will be barred to walkers if they go through grazing fields, pass through farms under investigation for foot and mouth, or are infected by the disease. There is also a ban on using footpaths through premises inside a three-kilometre foot and mouth protection zone.

The decision to open Baildon Moor follows talks with the government but the Council has warned it could be closed at a moment's notice if there are any more outbreaks of the infection nearby.

Richard Wixey, the Council's director of environmental protection, said: "We have held discussions with government officials and they say there is no reason why people cannot use Baildon Moor, as long as there are no new outbreaks nearby."

The Council has decided not to open the Bronte Moors at Keighley but footpaths in the southern part of the district in Tong, Bierley, Wyke, Queensbury, and Thornton, will be opened on July 27, so long as they fall within the criteria set down by the Council.

Ilkley Moor remains shut because it is within 3km of an outbreak, but Middleton Woods, including Stubham Woods and Hudson Woods, Panorama Woods, and Hebers Ghyll, Ilkley, have been opened.