A LEADING Dartmoor campaigner has insisted the Park Authority scraps its new bylaws.

In a strongly-worded letter to National Park Officer Dr Kevin Bishop, writer and veteran Dartmoor campaigner, John Bainbridge, is calling for the Dartmoor National Park Authority’s proposed new byelaws to be abandoned in their entirety.

John Bainbridge has campaigned for Dartmoor and National Park values for 50 years, including nine years as chief executive of the Dartmoor Preservation Association (1996-2005).

He is well-known as an author of country books and novels.

He has worked in the past as a Dartmoor guide and has written hundreds of articles about Dartmoor, as well as broadcasting about the moor on radio and television.

John Bainbridge said that the proposed new bylaws are ‘overshadowing the National Park’s 70th birthday anniversary’.

He said: ‘How sad that, at a time when we should all be celebrating the seventieth birthday of the Dartmoor National Park, the Park Authority has mired the celebrations with these pompous, draconian and offensive proposals.’

In his letter he brands many of the proposals ‘ridiculous’, adding that they are ‘in opposition to National Park purposes, illiberal, wrong in law and unenforceable’.

He urges the National Park Authority to work with Dartmoor users rather than against them, ending his letter to Dr Bishop: ‘I do urge the Dartmoor National Park Authority to ditch these proposed bylaws now.

‘Then to work with ALL groups and individuals with an interest in Dartmoor to decide whether any bylaws are actually needed at all and, if it be judged that they are, a consensus be arrived at that is less illiberal, more educative, lawful, and – most important of all – more in line with the intentions of the campaigners who created our National Parks.

‘Let us not mark the 70th anniversary year of the Dartmoor National Park by pursuing these disgraceful proposed bylaws.’

How you can have your say on bylaw reform proposals

Dartmoor National Park Authority has agreed draft proposals to update and amend Dartmoor’s bylaws.

A consultation is now open for you to comment on the proposed changes to the bylaws.

A spokesperson said: ‘The authority agreed to consult widely on revisions to the National Park bylaws.

‘We are doing this to ensure the bylaws are fit for purpose and help protect the National Park for all to enjoy today and tomorrow.

‘We have formally consulted our statutory consultees as part of this process and are keen to seek a wider range of views on the proposals via a public consultation.

‘Updating the bylaws is an important topic for everyone who cares about Dartmoor whether it’s landowners, commoners, residents, businesses or visitors, and we recognise people will want to have a say.

‘We thank Mr Bainbridge for his views and will record and evaluate them with all the other responses we receive.’