NEW Forest figurehead Maldwin Drummond has accused the National Park Authority of dragging its heels over setting up a planning policy document for the area.

The criticism comes on the second anniversary of the creation of the New Forest National Park.

After a year as a shadow authority, the National Park Authority took on its full powers on April 1, 2006.

But, according to Mr Drummond, retiring president of the 41-year-old New Forest Association, the authority appears to be another two years away from completing the vital planning policy document required to protect the area from unwanted development pressures.

As a former Official Verderer and New Forest Committee chairman, Mr Drummond, owner of the Cadlands Estate, keeps a close eye on New Forest affairs.

In his fifth and final President's Report to go before the New Forest Association's annual general meeting on April 19, he says: "The National Park Authority and the New Forest District Council are to be congratulated for the progress it has made with schemes such as the New Forest marque.

"However, there are worries, from the planning point of view, that a tailor-made New Forest Plan is long overdue.

"This is sad because great strides were made by the New Forest Committee so the transition between the policies of the New Forest District Council and the Park could be relatively swift and seamless.

"Yet we are probably two years away from a final document."

And he adds: "Perhaps the thrust of the New Forest Association over the next couple of years should be to identify the problems facing the National Park Authority and suggest ways in which these can be overcome.

"The association has been particularly good at doing this sort of thing in the past."

A New Forest National Park spokesman said: "The New Forest National Park Authority's core strategy is on its way to being completed.

"A first draft will be completed within five months which will go to the planning inspectorate for comment.

"It still has to go through a series of lengthy legal stages before being adopted.

"The interim polices were written knowing that the New Forest was going to become a National Park.

"Since Christmas we have designated four conservation areas within the Park and are looking at designating more."