'THE representatives chose not to turn up' . . . at the Burrator Parish meeting (Mr Orchard last week). I didn't notice anyone missing whom the chairman had invited, but I was there and listening carefully to many deeply concerned residents.

Any views expressed by ten per cent of the residents commands respect, and I am sure the parish council's planning committee considered it carefully.

They were also obliged to consider the facts, which had not been much in evidence at the parish meeting, and their advice to the Dartmoor National Park Authority will be of no value to anybody if it is not firmly based on planning law.

The only poll by which parish councillors may lawfully be bound is an election. As it happens we had one only last May and Mr Ledger and his colleagues at 'Action to Protect Dartmoor' promoted a candidate for the borough council who was supportive of his views but unsuccessful, and on a turnout of 54 per cent rather than 10 percent.

As I am a member of the DNP the law doesn't allow me to make up my mind finally until we take the decision in March, but the SWW application is for a list of matters.

Operationally they want to make the upper floor of the Lodge a self-contained flat for a resident supervisor, with an office downstairs.

Both these are uses which have been established for a century, it is the interests of Burrator to have resident staff to pick up the phone to the police when thieves, vandals, car burners or badger baiters are about. At present I see no planning reason to refuse these changes.

An education area is being proposed. Again on the facts available I can see no defensible argument against it. I have said for years, in public and in private, that there has to be a use for the Lodge, and that the proper use is a public one, preferably educational.

The proposal for a tea room is another matter, it does not appear to be an enterprise based on the environmental qualities of the area, and will therefore be difficult for SWW to justify in planning terms.

There was no planning application for this in 1996, but it was my view at the time that unless SWW could produce some justification that had so far escaped me, this should be refused.

Any public use of the Lodge will inescapably require off road parking, but I am hoping for something for the agreed users only, and much smaller. We should be able to save the trees. Maybe even my temporary rescue of the Great Green Corrugated Iron Shed can become permanent!

Nicholas Waterhouse

WDBC member for Burrator and member, Dartmoor National Park Authority

Meavy