A CONTROVERSIAL proposal to reduce the number of parish councillors who can vote on Exmoor planning applications has been deferred.

Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA) will now consult with parish councils and local communities before considering the idea again.

There had been anger among parishes when they discovered the ENPA wanted to cut the size of its planning committee almost by half, meaning a reduction from five to three parish councillors who would serve on it.

It was one of a number of suggestions put forward by chief executive Sarah Bryan in an attempt to save £20,000 a year.

Ms Bryan wanted to reduce the number of authority meetings from 10 to six per year and have a planning committee of 12 instead of all 22 ENPA members.

She said more than 90 per cent of planning applications were decided by officers using delegated powers which would leave only about 30 to 40 a year to be discussed by the committee, equivalent to about six cases per meeting.

Ms Bryan also recommended a review of the Exmoor Consultative and Parish Forum and to set up an independent review of members’ allowances, which currently totalled slightly more than £80,000 a year.

She accepted parishes had not been consulted on the proposals because it was a matter for the park authority to determine its own committees.

However, ENPA members overall felt uncomfortable adopting the proposals without engagement with parish councils and communities.

They voted to defer the issues and for amended proposals to be brought back after consultation.

Members also wanted to delay any review of their allowances until a new meeting pattern had been settled.

They said changes which had already been made to the meeting structure had improved the way the authority worked, but recognised there was still room for improvement.