DARTMOOR Forest Parish Council (DFPC) is to investigate the cost of installing CCTV in hotspot areas following a flurry of destructive behaviour by ’snow tourists’ recently.

The council has been called into action by angry farmers after a number of complaints and representations about the ’inconsiderate, anti-social and occasional criminal behaviour’ on the weekend of January 15.

At a DFPC meeting, councillors discussed the incidents reported, which included: irresponsible drivers using car parks and roads as skid pans in the snow, mass trespassing in pasture fields containing livestock, loose dogs attacking sheep while owners are playing in the snow and gates left open allowing livestock to disperse into woodland and onto roads.

Dry stone walls were also demolished or badly damaged in areas and pastureland was churned to mud.

There were also instances where road access was partially blocked by poorly parked cars — as a result landowners and the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) ranger were verbally abused and ignored when asking people to leave private property or clear road obstructions.

Local people were also disappointed by the lack of response and inadequate action by the police — DFPC discussed that at at one point 101 operators were advising complaints to dial 999; 999 operators were promising a response but patrol cars did not materialise.

The Dartmoor Forest Parish Council minutes stated: ’These problems have become almost perennial but many parishioners feel the situation was more acute this year, in part because Princetown was the only area to get snow and hence the city and town exodus was concentrated in small area.’

Councillors also discussed a range of measures suggested by the pubic but they agreed that there was no legal authority for many ideas.

Use of the Public Order Act 1986 in regard to mass trespass was also discussed — which makes refusing to leave the land, under police order, a criminal act. However it was agreed that police are likely to decline to give such an order unless the landowner has already done so and been ignored, there has also been damage done, or threatening behaviour has been used — or if they believe the eviction would merely result in a second trespass nearby.

DNPA has recently installed a barrier to enable the visitor centre car park to be shut off and a key is held by Cllr Mark Renders. It was suggested a similar arrangement should be sought for Lord’s Restaurant car park.

After the debate the parish council resolved to invite the Duchy to enter a similar agreement as DNPA to allow the parish council to close the Lord’s Restaurant car park in snow to prevent skid pan driving.

DFPC clerk will also write to the Chief Constable, the Police and Crime Commissioner and the local superintendent commanding to represent the need for responsive policing of the anarchic anti-social behaviour during snow and request Devon County Council and West Devon Borough Council members make appropriate representations to the relevant authorities.

An investigation into the costs and practicality of mounting CCTV cameras in hotspot areas for anti-social behaviour will be undertaken and the council will seek DNPA support in erecting ’no access’ signs on field gates.

DFPC also plan to contact media outlets requesting they include reference to responsible behaviour when reporting snow and prepare a stock press release on how to behave in the snow, to be released to local media whenever snow is forecast.