ALL members of Exmoor National Park Authority have been told to keep a weekly check on planning application lists to avert another potentially damaging mistake involving applicants and relatives who either work for or serve on the authority.

The advice comes after an error was made in the consideration of an application from the nephew of planning committee chairman Roger Webber and park member Cllr Ian Rigby.

As well as the family ties, the affordable home which was the subject of the application was due to be built on land owned by Cllr Webber in Wheddon Cross.

As a result of the close family connections alone, the application should have gone before a full planning committee, but it was mistakenly earmarked for approval by officers using delegated powers after the relationship was not noticed or declared.

Both Cllr Rigby and Cllr Webber were subsequently cleared of knowingly breaking any of the authority's rules or regulations, but procedures were tightened up following the incident.

Problems started when the applicant's agent ticked the "no" box on the planning form asking whether there was a link between the agent or applicant and the park authority.

However, the application did clearly state that the property would be built on land owned by Cllr Webber.

The error was noticed by members of the pressure group Exmoor Uprising and the application was swiftly removed from the delegated list and an investigation launched.

The plans later went before a full planning committee and were approved in March, several months after they were first submitted.

At Tuesday's full authority meeting, Exmoor Uprising spokesman Molly Groves said the group had no axe to grind with the applicants and claimed she had been vilified for delaying the application.

She told members: "Last November a planning application was entered to erect an affordable house on the [planning committee] chairman's land etc.

"If he had declared all interests it could have gone to committee in January and been passed.

"We have been accused of causing stress by the delay.

"I was personally publicly accosted on three different occasions and accused of trying to stop the young couple having a home.

"There appeared to be a smear campaign against us . . . but we had done nothing wrong, so why were we being pestered?"

At the time Exmoor Uprising alerted the park authority to the mistake, the group was praised for its diligence by chief executive Nigel Stone.

He said: "It is essential that we do get our planning processes right and that we are seen to do so.

"I welcome the scrutiny being provided by Exmoor Uprising and their speed in advising me of a possible problem."

For the future, members are being asked to study weekly planning lists at the authority and tell officers if they believe they have have a personal involvement in any of the applications.