LETTERS
From Datne loan Vickers, MP. K. Treeby, R. Marcetic, L. A. Holford-Strevens. J. M. Venables, J. F. McCrindle, N. J. Ogbuehi, Bruce S. Reed and Geoffrey Williams, R. J. F. Parsons, D. Watkins, D. S. Savage.
The rape of Dartmoor
Sir: One needs to read only the first para- graph of Mr Stanley Johnson's article on Dartmoor (7 March) to see that he has swallowed the propaganda of the Dartmoor Preservation Association hook, line and faulty information.
The scheme which Plymouth and south west Devon (who together supply about 40 per cent of the population of Devon and Cornwall) have adopted is one which will conserve the waters of the Dart and the Tavy by enabling the drawing of more water at the points where these rivers go salt; a reservoir is needed to supplement the supply when the rivers are low. It is a scheme worthy of Conservation Year.
The reservoir will be at Fox Tor Mires, in the Swincombe Valley. As its name sug- gests the place is a bog; and the proposal will turn it into a lake. This, of course, will make some further change in the landscape there; whether it will be for the better or worse is a matter of opinion. I say further change because this place is far from being the natural and untroubled heart of the moor that the preservationists represent. The fact that the industrial archaeological section of the Devon Association are about to survey the workings of tin streamings which were carried on there for over a century speaks for itself. The Moor has changed century by century and it cannot and should not be fossilised in the precise condition it was in 1949.
I apprehend the fears that the creation of a lake will be an attraction to the motorist. The Bill which is being promoted specifically gives the Dartmoor National Park Committee power to prevent access by car—indeed it can be used to reduce the access which is at present available.
Mr Johnson ends on a note which would he funny if it were not sarcastically hysterical. To put the matter soberly, what the promoters are asking for is that the Bill shall go before a Select Committee and be examined in detail by them.
Joan Vickers House of Commons, London swl sir: Stanley Johnson's article (7 March) prompts the question—why do we employ planners at all? The evidence shows that their post-war activities have been a disaster. The arguments in favour of most of their schemes are plausible—I think they even convince themselves—but there is little doubt that more people have lost their homes, more small businesses have been ruined, towns and cities ruined, countryside disfigured by planners' follies than by Goering's bombers.
They demand new reservoirs without first ensuring water is not wasted—a long erdue innovation is the installation of ssater meters.
They say we must destroy our en- ‘ironMent because the number of vehicles hill have doubled in so many years—without making the slightest effort to invigorate and develop public transport so that this situa- tion is avoided.
I was once innocent enough to believe that many of the injustices perpetrated by authorities were committed in ignorance. After trying to persuade them to see and rec- tify these injustices, particularly the abuse of compulsory purchase orders, I am convinced there is an awful lot of humbug in public life, both national and locaL I would like to emphasise, however, that I have found paid officials more sympathetic and willing to try to do right than the many elected represen- tatives I have approached. Perhaps after all a spiritually bankrupt age cannot expect a very high standard of representation in local or national government.
K. Treeby 8 Lansdowne Road, Aldershot, Hampshire
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