DARTMOOR National Park Authority came under fire from one of the leading moor action groups this week for being 'undemocratic'.

The DNPA has just begun consulting the public over both its new management plan and the next local plan covering the period 2001 to 2011 — but the Dartmoor Society has criticised the authority for failing to tackle, in either document, what it sees as fundamental issues.

Foremost in its list of criticisms was the way the authority's members were selected.

Members of the DNPA are not directly elected by the resident population. They are appointed from other public authorities such as Devon County and West Devon Borough councils and the secretary of state appoints five parish councillors — a hangover from when the authority was a county council committee.

Society chairman Dr Tom Greeves said now that it was an independent body in its own right this situation should be remedied.

He said: 'It's the only local authority that isn't directly elected — it's absolutely unique, and it's making very important decisions affecting the lives of 33,000 people living in the park, as well as visitors.

'It doesn't seem quite right in an age of, hopefully, increasing democracy. It's a bizarre state of affairs and one of the causes of disquiet among local people.

'The authority has much more responsibility than it did before and people don't feel they are represented directly on that body.'

In its written response, the Dartmoor Society also criticised the staffing policy at the authority. Dr Greeves said there was an urgent need for a rigorous assessment of the structure and training of staff.

For example, he said, the DNPA, which is responsible for an historic landscape going back to the stone age, had never had a trained historian on the staff in its 50-year history.

The group also criticised the authority's stance on quarrying and mining — important issues not addressed in the documents, said Dr Greeves.

And he urged the DNPA to lead the way in encouraging pioneering and innovative schemes to harness sustainable energy resources on Dartmoor.

The society made a number of other recommendations, including the deletion of the DNPA's objective to remove 'existing intrusions' on the moorland landscape. It said many significant historical structures were being swept away as 'eyesores' and demanded the authority properly assess many of the more modern structures dating back over the last century.

It also demanded the protection of small-scale cottages and pre-war bungalows, fearing the loss of affordable housing for local people through redevelopment or extension, and called on the authority to consult more with the public and improve relations, which they say are at an all-time low.

The society insisted policies would be flawed until there was reliable data on the economic and social aspects of Dartmoor and it criticised the excess of designations in the area like SSSI, NNR, SAC, SAM, ESA.

'What is much more important is that information about what the land contains should be presented in an accessible way to all members of the community,' said Dr Greeves.

Other comments included amalgamating the management and local plans to save resources and reduce confusion.

Phil Markham, DNPA's head of forward planning and community, said the authority will be giving the Dartmoor Society's comments a full and thorough airing before the next stage of the plan and will respond in due course.