North East and Cumbria: Foot and mouth row

Richard Moss Political Correspondent, North East and Cumbria

Nowhere was hit harder than Cumbria

The sheep may be back in the fields, the tourists back on the footpaths, but two years on from the foot and mouth outbreak there are still some issues outstanding.

Nowhere was hit harder than Cumbria but the Government always promised it would help the county recover.

When Tony Blair flew in during the height of the crisis, he even pledged to be the Minister for Cumbria.

Why then two years after the outbreak was finally beaten does his Government owe Cumbrian businesses and council taxpayers a small fortune?

The Government certainly needed their help at the height of the crisis.

If you remember for some time ministers even refused to acknowledge it was a crisis.

Then, Tony Blair came to Cumbria and saw for himself just how bad things were getting.

Emergency action

General Election plans were postponed, the army was called in and the battle against the disease began in earnest.

It was certainly all hands to the pump in this firefighting exercise.

Great Orton was the burial site for hundreds of thousands of animals

The county council rushed to bury dead animals at its landfill sites, Cumbrian companies pitched in with transport, clean-up and valuation of stock.

The Ministry of Agriculture reassured all involved they would be paid for the work they were doing to contain the crisis.

But believe it or not two years on, many of the Cumbrian agencies and firms involved in doing the Government's work have still not been paid in full.

The Ministry of Agriculture's successor is the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and as well as a change of name it has had a change of attitude.

It is refusing to settle many of the outstanding bills, and is using a team of auditors to go through every invoice.

Cumbria CC waste management and private companies remain unpaid

Cumbria County Council's waste management wing is amongst those who haven't been paid.

But there is also a range of private companies owed money.

Defra says it has to ensure taxpayers' money is spent wisely, and is only fulfilling that duty.

But the businesses see this as sharp practice, the type of dodgy dealing that would get a private company a name as a bad customer.

Now many are beginning to lose patience. They feel betrayed and the prospect of them taking the Government to court is a real one.

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