EXMOOR residents are being asked to take part in a postal survey aimed at gauging public opinion on the state of the moor and the role of the national park authority.

Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger is planning to survey around 8,000 local people, asking them their views on the performance of Exmoor National Park Authority and what they see as the future of the moor.

As an outspoken critic of the park authority, Mr Liddell-Grainger said he believed the results would make "interesting reading".

The survey focuses on the role of Government-appointed national park authority members and whether the authority does more for wildlife than people.

It also asks whether more could be done to help residents and to encourage tourists to the park.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said he believed Exmoor was becoming little more than "a playground for a few environmentalists" and called for more action to ensure local families could remain on the moor.

He accused the authority of having a "wickedly restrictive planning regime", which stifled development and economic prospects.

But the park authority has the full backing of Jon Bright, the regional director of the Government Office of the South West, who earlier this month wrote to Mr Liddell-Grainger stating his support for Exmoor's tough stance on new-build homes.

He said he was "encouraged" that the authority's policy of only allowing new houses to be built as local needs affordable homes was starting to lead to the delivery of new, affordable homes.

Mr Bright acknowledged there had been a delay between the introduction of the policy and the physical construction of homes, but blamed that on the reluctance of developers rather than the performance of the national park authority.

He said landowners had been reluctant to accept open market housing was no longer permitted and it had taken time for them to accept "depressed land values".

He also disagreed with Mr Liddell-Grainger's call for all Government-appointed park authority members to live within the boundary of Exmoor.

Mr Liddell-Grainger has long maintained that many appointees simply do not understand the realities of life on the moor and claimed local policies were being "dictated by outsiders".

Mr Liddell-Grainger said: "The authority includes representatives from local councils who are supposed to be the mouthpieces for local people's views, a role which, to their credit, they do their best to fulfil.

"But it is also stuffed with ministerial appointees - most of whom live outside the park - an unelected, unaccountable bunch."

In a covering letter attached to the survey, Mr Liddell-Grainger said he was determined to find an "intelligent solution" to the problems he had come across on the moor and pledged to send the results to Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Although respondents will be asked to supply their name and address with returned surveys, Mr Liddell-Grainger said all responses would be confidential.

Copies of the questionnaire are also available on the MP's website at http://www.liddellgrainger.org.uk">www.liddellgrainger.org.uk.