NATIONAL park authority members are being asked on Tuesday (April 4) to create two new conservation areas on Exmoor for the first time in 26 years despite widespread parish council and public opposition to the idea.
The park’s head of conservation and access Rob Wilson-North has recommended conservation area status should be imposed in both Winsford and Simonthsbath.
Mr Wilson-North said the national park had a significant issue with ‘under designation and formal recognition of its heritage assets’.
He said: “There are numerous settlements, buildings, and sites which are worthy of national designation across the national park.
“Exmoor National Park has not undertaken a broader review of its settlements to identify areas which meet the criteria for conservation area designation since the 1990s.”
Mr Wilson-North said it would mean planning applications in the new conservation zones would require ‘special attention’ to be paid to the ‘desirability of preserving or enhancing the character or appearance of that area’.
Exmoor currently has 16 conservation areas designated in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including Dunster and Porlock Weir created in 1973, Allerford, Bossington, Porlock, and Selworthy in 1984, four Exmoor farmsteads in 1993, and Dulverton, Luccombe, and Wootton Courtenay in 1994.
The proposals for Simonsbath were strongly opposed by residents and by the parish council, which said the current national park designation and stewardship of the council was ‘perfectly adequate to preserve the character and charm of the village’.
It said conservation area status appeared to be just another level of bureacracy without any apparent benefits to the parish.
Winsford saw some residents support the idea but parish councillors were split with only three voting in favour because of the level of opposition in the community.
Mr Wilson-North said the new conservation areas would come into force immediately the park authorioty members voted for them, and the decisions would then need to be advertised and the Secretary of State informed.