Bleak burial site for Cumbrian sheep

The Army is co-ordinating the massive task

By Mike McKay in Great Orton

For more than two weeks, Cumbrian farmers had been demanding that Agriculture Minister, Nick Brown come and see for himself the full extent of their anguish.

Only then they insisted would he really understand how serious the foot-and-mouth crisis was.

Tony Blair got in first last Thursday. When Mr Brown arrived in Carlisle today it was at exactly the time the media were being shown the first mass burial site for up to half a million Cumbrian sheep.

The carcasses are sprayed with disinfectant

Six miles from where Mr Brown was meeting an NFU delegation, the Army were overseeing a remarkable civil engineering project on a disused Second World War airfield.

In less than 24 hours the old airfield had been transformed into a sizeable encampment.

Trucks containing the first batch of sheep carcasses were lined up on the runway.

Dumper trucks and disinfectant wagons stood by them, and half a dozen mechanical diggers were ploughing up the top soil and cutting the first burial trench - 100 metres long and four metres deep.

Local unease

The adoption of this windswept airfield has not pleased everyone.

In the scattered villages around the base, particularly Great Orton, there are fears about contamination of the water system and infection of livestock.

Jimmy Mulholland, a butcher who keeps 100 head of cattle on land next to the airfield, says no one told the local community what was being done.

Nick Brown has been criticised for not visiting Cumbria sooner

He said he was resigned to his herd which includes a prize steer becoming infected: "My knees are knocking waiting for the signs".

But he added he recognised emergency action had to be taken.

Army spokesman, Major Guy Richardson, said every measure was being taken to ensure the safe disposal of the carcasses.

Their burial would not affect the water table; the clay subsoil would minimise leakage and specially built drains would secure the whole site, he said.

Back in Carlisle after his NFU meeting, Nick Brown faced a packed press conference.

Lakeland fears

He said they had discussed the need to further reduce the time from diagnosis to slaughter of animals - it had to be brought down to 24 hours.

He also expressed grave concern about the overnight outbreak reported in the Lake District where fell sheep - among the hardiest in Britain - have been infected.

"We are looking to setting up a new cordon in that southern area of the county to act as a firebreak" he said.

John Walker, leader of the recently formed Cumbria Crisis Alliance, said it was desperately important that the Lake District flock be saved - they were vital to the whole Lakeland economy.