DARTMOOR'S famous landscapes are being eroded by the 40% cuts in Government funding for the national park authority, according to information obtained by the Campaign for National Parks.

Dartmoor National Park Authority said it ended its Forestry Stewardship Council woodlands' accreditation scheme; cut two full-time posts that had focused on maintaining key public rights of way and delivery of education projects and terminated its dry stone walling and hedge-laying courses.

It has also abolished its dedicated land management team, reduced its capacity on historic environment work by 60% and its ranger services by 16% as well as cutting capacity at its visitor centres.

The reductions are consequences of the funding cuts, which have reduced the grant the authority receives from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) from £5-million in 2010/1 to £3.6million – a fall of £1.4m or 28.2%. But this figure rises to 40% when taking into account the effects of the retail price index and the impact of the cuts on secondary income sources. This is according to information released following a Freedom of Information request.

The Campaign for National Parks said another concerning cutback was the reduced support for education to school and higher education groups.

During the five year period, the number of full-time equivalent staff has fallen substantially from 106 in April 2010 to 67.7 in April 2015, and the authority has terminated a number of high profile projects including One Planet Dartmoor — a climate change project designed to create a sustainable future that recognises environmental limits and the Sustainable Development Fund which funded projects that demonstrate envir-onmental, social and local economic benefits for Dartmoor as well as furthering national park aims. In the past, grants have been given to projects looking to set up charging stations for electric vehicles; a range of products from Dartmoor wool and an extension to village halls to provide rural shops. Action for Wildlife — a project that carried out practical project work as a contribution to targets for key habitats and species under the Dartmoor Biodiversity Action Plan — has also ceased.

Fiona Howie, Campaign for National Parks chief executive, said it was clear that Dartmoor — which receives more than four fifths of its income from Government funding — had been severely affected and that she was deeply concerned about the potential level of further cuts over the next five years.

'The cuts are already having an impact for communities that live within and visitors to all of our national parks,' she said. 'Information centres are being closed down or shortening their opening hours; public rights of way are not being maintained; multiple wildlife projects have been shelved and support for educating school children about this beautiful and nationally significant area has been reduced.

'National park authorities should be spending time promoting our national parks as our most treasured jewels in the crown and not having to look over their shoulder and deal with painful, piece-meal year on year cuts.

'We know that national park authorities are trying to be creative about accessing new funding streams, but national parks are nationally important assets. They need to be properly valued by the Government and supported financially to make sure they are able to continue to deliver important environmental, social, economic and cultural benefits to both local communities and the nation.'