EXMOOR National Park Authority has been criticised for its response to a Government-led directive which seeks to overhaul the way in which the organisation is run.

Both the Exmoor Society and pressure group Exmoor Uprising said they were disappointed with the authority's official response to a review of governance procedures.

While the society said the authority had "missed an opportunity" to scale back its "large and costly" membership, the uprising group maintained direct elections would be the only way to make members accountable.

They also criticised bosses for proposing to introduce video-conferencing to save money at the same meeting as discussing plans to send four representatives to a one-day conference in York - at a cost of almost £300 per head.

The authority was asked to review key areas, including whether the size and composition of its membership was correct, whether the selection process for members could be improved, whether there should be a limit on the time people could serve on the authority, how links could be improved with communities and what could be done to improve effectiveness and accountability.

A number of consultation events were held across the national park and the results, together with feedback from local authorities and existing members, would be sent to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

At Tuesday's national park meeting, members said they believed the current membership of 22 was right and felt no time restrictions should be introduce to limit the service of 'local' members.

But they did call for the current Secretary of State appointees to be changed to five 'national' and five 'local' rather than the current 6:4 ratio.

Rachel Thomas, chairman of the Exmoor Society, said it was a mistake to lose the expertise offered by national members, especially when the current membership was dominated by local authority representatives.

She said fewer members would mean the authority would save money and be more accountable.

She said: "A greater personal responsibility falls upon specific individuals when a representative body is smaller rather than greater and the Exmoor Society maintains that a slimmed down membership could actually improve members' accountability and thus enhance democratic performance and, therefore, the credibility of the authority.

"An opportunity to lead by example by reducing the size of the membership at the head of the authority has been sadly lost.

"We welcome the proposed increase in parish member but are astonished that the authority is proposing that this should be at the cost of reducing national members and, therefore, diminishing their proportion.

"National members play a very important role in bringing specialised knowledge, wide experience and independent judgement in matters that reflect the core national park purposes.

"Extra parish members members could easily be achieved by limiting the number of local authority councillors."

Mrs Thomas added: "It is unfortunate that members have not taken this opportunity to reduce their numbers in order to become more efficient and better balanced in carrying out their public duties for Exmoor."

But authority chief executive Nigel Stone said he believed local authority members were accountable to local residents, having been elected by the residents living in the wards they served.

He said public consultation events had shown widespread support for the existing consultative and parish forum and for planning surgeries in Lynton and Porlock.

Members confirmed their support for the existing schemes but called for more transparency in the way state appointees were selected.

They also backed a suggestion for an annual open meeting to be held to allow members of the public to raise a raft of issues directly with both members and senior officers each year.

But Molly Groves of Exmoor Uprising said people living in the park were desperate for real democracy and said that could only be achieved by directly electing members to the authority.

She said: "Inhabitants of Exmoor desire democratic government, similar to the rest of the country.

"We think it is our civil right that we should not be governed by a completely unelected quango, as we are now."

She also believed members should not have agreed any proposals until the Government had revealed its own view on the structure of the park authority.