EXMOOR tours for visitors organised by the national park authority are unfairly affecting existing private safari operators, it was claimed this week.

Andrew Turner, who has run Cutcombe-based Red Stag Safari for over ten years and whose family have lived on Exmoor for seven generations, fears the tours could put him out of business.

He said the national park’s Ranger Experience Day tours were making it increasingly difficult for private operators to make a living.

“Up to last year it was just private operators who ran safari-type tours on Exmoor and in recent times these have fallen from five main operators to three, reflecting the difficulty in making a profit out of such businesses,” he said.

“The safari business is only a small cake from which the park authority is now taking a slice, so there is less business for the rest of us.

“It is certainly reducing what little profit I make to the point where it is hardly worth running the business any more. I think I may have to close down," he said.

Mr Turner also said he believed the park authority could be potentially breaking the law with the safari operation and he had complained to the licensing authority – Somerset West and Taunton Council – which was investigating.

“They are operating without any licence whereas private operators are licensed by the district council,” he said.

But Dan James, the park authority’s sustainable economy manager, said the park had been told by legal advisors that licences were not required and this had been confirmed by the licensing authority.

It had commented: “You are not running a private hire business. Customers are paying for a day’s experience of Exmoor, not to go from point A to point B, which is what private hire would be.

“The actual journey is in effect ancillary to the day. So therefore you do not need a taxi/private hire licensed driver or vehicle.”

For the full report, buy today’s Free Press (July 26).