THE New Forest National Park Authority has called for more government cash to ensure it can carry out its role effectively.

A week after the authority assumed its full powers, park bosses said an extra £1.5m in government cash was not enough.

It was handed a one-off £1.2m grant to help with set-up costs and will see its annual grant increased by £255,402 over the next two years to keep pace with inflation - raising its annual budget to £3,622,764 for 2006/7 and £3,713,810 for 2007/8.

But Mel Kendal, pictured, deputy chairman of the New Forest National Park Authority, said the budget allocation was the minimum needed to set up and run the park in the first two years.

He said: "We still need an extra £350,000 a year in 2006/7 and 2007/8 if the new national park is to fulfil its statutory planning functions and begin to achieve its wider conservation, enhancement, understanding and enjoyment purposes.

"This is the amount we were promised when the National Park was designated."

Landscape minister Jim Knight, who announced the cash boost at the park last week, said: "I have often said that if I could find an extra pound in our budgets I would give it to national parks, who do such wonderful work and provide such good value for money."

Authority chairman Ted Johnson said he was pleased the minister recognised the special challenges of setting up the first new national park for half a century, with its new function as the planning authority.

"The minister has agreed to look again at additional funding for the costs of running the New Forest National Park in the light of south-east costs and the fact that we do not have the benefit of income that other national parks receive from sources such as car parks and campsites," he said.

Chief executive Lindsay Cornish added: "We will still need to work very hard to make the best use possible of our limited resources to achieve national park purposes. We will, as we intended, work in partnership to help everyone safeguard this wonderful national asset and ensure people can continue to enjoy it but this will be a massive challenge."

The New Forest National Park stretches from the Avon Valley to Southampton Water and from the Solent coast to the edge of the Wiltshire chalk downs.

It includes a 900-year-old forest, the largest area of lowland heath in Britain and Europe, wide lawns, salt marshes and picturesque villages.

William the Conqueror set aside the Forest for hunting more than 900 years ago and centuries of grazing by deer, ponies and cattle have shaped the landscape.

The government's announcement was part of an overall £3.1m funding boost for England's National Parks and the Broads Authority until 2007/08.