DEVON County Council has been commended for its work in restoring the culm grassland at Ash Moor near Petrockstowe. The council has been named as joint runner-up in the ?Schemes on the Ground? category of the 2005 Royal Town Planning Institute?s south west regional planning awards. The commendation recognises the council?s efforts in the planning of the restoration of the land at Ash Moor after MAFF had identified it for mass burial of animal carcasses during the foot and mouth crisis four years ago. MAFF was intending to construct 15 carcass burial pits over an area of some 40 hectares, part of which was a County Wildlife Site. In the event, the site was never used for carcass burial. In its prompt response to these plans, the county council invoked the Government?s Crown Land and Crown Development procedures to ensure that the MAFF scheme was subject to proper planning conditions. The council?s conditions formed the basis for Defra?s eventual and successful restoration of the site with significant enhancement of its nature conservation value. In announcing the commendation, the award judges noted: ?Prompt action, forward thinking and persistence by planners and others in the county council team in the face of a crisis situation and great pressure from central government . . . enabled significant site enhancement to be achieved as a fundamental part of the subsequent restoration process. This is the kind of planning achievement which seldom hits any headlines, but yet provides a lasting legacy of professionalism.? Cllr Michael Browning, chairman of the county council?s development control committee, said: ?I am delighted that the hard work by the council?s planning and conservation team has been recognised in this way. ?The results of their success in guiding the restoration process can be gauged by the fact that Ash Moor today looks as if no major development has ever taken place. ?This shows the county council?s commitment to working to make Devon greener.?