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Locals know how best to run national parks The church of St Michael de Rupe at Brentor in Dartmoor National Park, Devon Credit: russgallery images SIR – Seventy years ago, the first English national parks were set up. The Government recently said that they represented one of the most outstanding environmental achievements of the past 100 years. Since 1995, the national park authorities have been independent statutory bodies, with a majority of local councillors on their boards. However, according to documents leaked to the BBC’s Countryfile programme (shown March 28), the Government now plans to bring all the functions and responsibilities of the protected landscapes into a single organisational structure, effectively a new national quango. ....