Editing Sylvia Sayer (section)

===TV mast===
[[File:North Hessary Tor base station.jpg|thumb|right|[[North Hessary Tor transmitting station]] and base of mast in 2010]]
As chairman of the Dartmoor Preservation Association (DPA), Sayer was heavily involved in all that organisation's fights for what it saw as conservation issues. The first of these was against the proposed installation of a television transmitting mast on [[North Hessary Tor]] in the centre of the moor. When the Dartmoor Standing Committee voted in June 1952 to approve the application, Sayer complained that it had relied on the casting vote of the chairman in the absence of three members who would have voted against.<ref>Kelly (2015), p.236.</ref>

Continued objection from Sayer and the DPA, and the [[Campaign to Protect Rural England|CPRE]], led to a public enquiry which took place in September 1953. Sir Patrick Duff, the National Parks Commission chairman, was well briefed by Sayer and at the enquiry his case was mainly based on the damage the mast would do to the scenery of the moor. Although congratulatory letters were passed between all the main objectors after the enquiry, the ministry granted the planning application in January 1954, though with some minor provisos to minimise the impact.<ref>Kelly (2015), pp.237–241.</ref> Although Duff had failed to stop the installation of the mast, Sayer rewarded him for his efforts with a painting of North Hessary Tor saying it was "almost the last representation of that landscape that can be made while it is still unshadowed and unspoiled".<ref name= K243 />