A CHANGE in forestry management is needed in parts of the North York Moors to prevent cleared areas looking like the Somme battlefield, with dead trees resembling statues, a public inquiry has been told.

Objections had been registered to sections of the park's draft Local Plan, which will govern planning regulations and policies for the coming years.

The inquiry also heard that, unless planning policy was tightened, parts of the moors could end up like Scandanavia, full of conifers and log cabins.

Among the objectors were the Council for the Protection of Rural England, Hartoft parish meeting and the Friends of Holme Farm.

Robert Salkeld, parish meeting chairman, said it was concerned that small items such as new windows came under strict planning controls, yet large-scale forestry operations did not.

He said: "We are also concerned that vast expanses of moorland are being turned into monolithic conifer plantations, creating a Scandinavian landscape."

And he said: "There are also patchwork quilt effects created where areas have been cleared, where as a matter of management dead trees are also left standing.

"This is major activity, which is not under the control of an authority like the park. There is definitely a gap in planning control."

For the national park authority, David Walker said a plan prepared some years ago included a management plan for woodland.

"We will take on board your concerns when it is reviewed later this year," he said.

Government inspector Richard Ogier will be involved in several site visits before making his report and recommendations.