THE work of the Dartmoor National Park Authority has brought significant benefits to Dartmoor's natural and cultural special qualities for its visitors and residents.

That was the claim of the DNPA's annual report — the third since it became a free-standing authority.

The report cited nearly a dozen of the DNPA's 'significant achievements' this year, including:

l the extension of the Moor Care programme

l its support for 50 practical schemes carried out by the Dart Biodiversity Project

l the planting of 3,000 trees on 64 sites

l 30 archaeological conservation projects

l 153 practical conservation projects

l £2.8 million committed to community-backed projects fostering social and economic development within the park.

DNPA chairman Bill Cann said: 'The communities on Dartmoor are very important to us all, and we continue to do our best to safeguard and improve Dartmoor as a national park for everyone, whilst ensuring balance with the living and working population.'

But while acknowledging the many good things the authority had achieved, John Bainbridge, chief executive of the Dartmoor Preservation Association, said the report was lacking in substance and he accused the authority of being diverted from its original raison d'être.

'The report doesn't go into any detail and it doesn't look in any depth at what is going wrong in the national park,' he said.

'The vision of the national park has been set aside for short-term needs. They have a very good vision, but do not seem to live up to it very often.

'Given this is the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the park, we'd like to see a commitment to that, such as booting the army off and stopping the China clay companies.

'They need to get back to the enthusiasm and optimism of when they were set up.

'At the moment they look like just another planning authority and the national park ethos seems to be a bit on the back burner.

'This is a really good time for everyone to think what we want from the national parks and to see if they have departed from the basic idea, which was quite good.'