Dartmoor National Park Authority
The Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) is a national park authority in England, legally responsible for Dartmoor in Devon. It came into existence in its present form in 1997, being preceded by a committee of Devon County Council (from 1951 to March 1974) and the Dartmoor National Park Committee from 1 April 1974.
Dartmoor, in the county of Devon, is 368 square miles (954 km2) in area. It was designated as one of the National Parks of England and Wales by statute in 1951; it has over 34,000 people living in it, and some 2.2 million people visited it in 2011.
For the first 23 years of its existence, Dartmoor National Park was administered by a special committee of Devon County Council, the "Dartmoor Sub-Committee". During this time the major proposals dealt with by the committee included extensions of china clay workings and coniferous plantations (which did not take place); the erection of a television transmitting mast at North Hessary Tor in 1953 (passed by the casting vote of the chairman); and proposals to construct three reservoirs, of which the Avon Dam Reservoir (mid-1950s) and the Meldon Reservoir (1972) were built, but one planned for the Swincombe Valley was rejected, by Parliamentary Committee in 1970 "on the grounds of the technical unsuitability of the scheme, not because it was sited in a national park".
In the 1960s three full-time park wardens were appointed, assisted by a number of voluntary wardens, whose job it was to "help and advise the public" and ensure compliance with local bye-laws. In addition, a temporary information centre was located at Two Bridges during the summer seasons.
The Local Government Act 1972 resulted in a major change in the governance of national parks. The Act established a National Park Committee for each park under the leadership of a named National Park Officer and 75% of each Committee's agreed annual budget was to be met from central funds. Dartmoor National Park Committee (DNPC) was the first in the country to appoint a leader, in October 1973, and by the time the Committee became operational on 1 April 1974, many of the necessary officers had already been appointed. A condition of the 1972 Act was that each National Park Committee had to produce a management plan setting out its policies, implementation plans and proposed budget. The first Dartmoor National Park Plan was published in 1977; its stated aim was that the Park would be "as tidy, enjoyable and uncontentious as possible". Reviews of the plan were produced in 1983 and 1991.
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