Wildlife campaigners have renewed their call for Moray Council to impose an outright ban on shooting at a nature spot.
A bitter row over hunting at Findhorn Bay broke out last summer.
Last month, a voluntary permit system was introduced in an attempt to simmer tensions between campaigners and shooters – but divided the groups further, with the former seeing them as a “step in the right direction” and the latter describing them as “airy fairy”.
Drafted up by Roy Dennis, chairman of the reserve at Findhorn Bay, the guidelines ban shooting on Sundays and Mondays, and also restrict the use of guns from an hour before sunrise to 10am, and from two hours before sunset to one hour after the sun goes down.
But now Friends of Findhorn Bay claim they have received complaints from residents in the area who say they have heard wildfowling as early as 3am.
The group says it has also received reports of people shooting wildfowl in close proximity to local houses, and above the mean high water mark, which is also not allowed under the voluntary scheme.
But Findhorn Wildfowling and Conservation Association (FWCA) blamed visitors from England for the breaches and insisted an all-out ban would be “completely excessive”.
Adrian Hutchins, from Friends of Findhorn Bay said: “Since the arrival of the geese in late September, residents of Findhorn Bay have had to put up with regular early morning shooting, before 6am, and numerous late night shooting which has continued past 11pm at night, even until 3am one night.
“In early September, the Moray Council banned shooting on council land above the mean high water mark, but this has not deterred the wildfowlers from shooting on the land.
“As long as shooting is allowed on Findhorn Bay, they will continue to disregard the law and any agreements.
“Residents on the bay cannot be expected to endure a further four months of this unacceptable behaviour. It is urgent for Moray Council to step up and introduce a by-law, preferably to ban the shooting outright.”
Last winter’s season at the bay attracted petitions and demonstrations against wildfowling from environmental and wildlife campaigners.
However, after much negotiation, this year’s season was granted permission to go ahead under a voluntary system involving permits, which are free for this first trial year.
Some shooting groups vowed to ignore the permits, while calling on similar rules for walkers at the bay, but conservationists welcomed them as a way of finding a long-term solution to the dispute.
Moray Council leader George Alexander said: “Roy Dennis has put a huge amount of effort into finding an acceptable compromise in this matter.
“The voluntary scheme which he devised has been in operation since the start of the shooting season.
“Those who have so far chosen to do all in their power to sabotage this voluntary scheme should give some thought to how their actions may influence public opinion, and particularly the views of councillors who will be asked to review the voluntary scheme at the end of the shooting season.
“Local shooters know that the unregulated shooting on the bay has, in recent years, become a free-for-all which simply cannot be allowed to continue.
“In the interests of all stakeholders who enjoy their personal use of Findhorn bay, I urge them to abide by the voluntary regulations and demonstrate that reasonable people can come to a reasonable compromise.”
FWCA administrator Peter Boulton said: “I understand it was visitors from Norfolk who were out shooting at night. We completely understand that people living near there don’t want that happening and we fully accept it. But banning shooting would be completely excessive.
“We have done everything in our power to accommodate what people have wanted, other than give up the bay completely,
“We would still like to come to an amicable agreement. If we could self-regulate permits we would stamp out that kind of behaviour. But the council don’t want to speak to us.”
