Extra aid for rural firms

Protesters make their feelings known at Mossburn Animal Centre

Countryside businesses hit by the foot-and-mouth crisis are to receive an extra £24m aid.

Environment minister Michael Meacher announced the increase in grant aid on Monday, saying the cash would be targeted at the areas most badly affected by the outbreak.

The money will help to create a Rural Business Recovery Fund, with a total of £50m available to help small businesses recover and rebuild.

The announcement comes as the Ministry of Agriculture faces legal battles to get access to a farm and an animal sanctuary that oppose the cull of healthy livestock.

A farmer in Exmoor and the owner of an animal sanctuary in Scotland are launching legal fights to stop foot-and-mouth officials carrying out the slaughter on their land.

Maff says up to 1,600 cattle on two farms between Bridgetown and Dulverton in Exmoor may have to be killed after fears that a farm worker had come into contact with the disease.

Foot-and-mouth facts

Total number of confirmed foot-and-mouth cases in the UK 1,564 - 4 by 1900 BST Sunday

2,459,000 animals have been slaughtered

111,000 animals awaiting slaughter

38,000 carcasses awaiting disposal

Contract worker Rob Norman visited up to 15 local farms, including some in the Wiveliscombe area of Somerset where there have been four outbreaks.

But Exmoor farmer Christopher Thomas-Everard, whose family runs the Dulverton farms, says his animals have been given a clean bill of health and he has instructed lawyers to fight Maff's decision.

"It would be an appalling waste of life to put down healthy cattle," he said.

"This is a political decision and we do not accept it. They are not beyond the law."

It is a bitter pill to swallow but it is a strategy that is working well elsewhere and I think we should pursue it

Maff spokesman David Bowman

Asked what he would do if army slaughtermen turned up at his gates, Mr Thomas-Everard said: "I think they will be surprised at our inventiveness."

But a spokesman for Maff, which has taken a legal injunction against Mr Thomas-Everard, said the farm was considered a "dangerous contact" and identified as a risk.

"We are following a strategy that has worked extremely well in large disease centre of Devon and Cumbria," David Bowman told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We have a job here to protect the all the farmers and thousands of people who depend on Exmoor being viable and free of disease. There is so much at risk here."

European Court

In Scotland, protesters have joined Juanita Wilson, of the Mossburn Animal Centre in Hightae, Dumfries and Galloway, to try to save 14 goats and three sheep from slaughter.

They plan to form a human shield around the centre and Ms Wilson says she has put £10,000 of personal savings into her legal fight.

"It is going to cost a hell of a lot of money but I'm prepared to put all my savings into this - it's everything I have but I can't put a price on my animals," she said.

Farmer Guy Everard and his fiancée Julia Fairey blockade the gate of their Broford Farm

"I'm prepared to go to the Court of Session in Edinburgh and we will no doubt lose but I have been assured by my QC that we can take our case to the House of Lords and the European Court of Human Rights."

Ms Wilson said her local vet had examined the animals at the rescue centre and issued a certificate giving them the all-clear.

Meanwhile, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) has called for the government to address the long-term effects of the crisis.

It says extra resources for voluntary organisations in rural areas are needed to help boost the regeneration of communities hit by foot-and-mouth.

Tourism hopes

Just six of the 88 designated deprived areas in the UK - which currently receive extra cash to fund voluntary groups under the government's renewal strategy - are in rural areas.

NCVO chief executive Stuart Etherington said: "Voluntary organisations who have been hit the hardest financially by the crisis operate in the worst-affected areas; rural areas in which support and engagement is most needed."

Tourist industry leaders are hoping the bank holiday weekend will continue to bring encouraging numbers of visitors into the countryside.

Good weather and re-opened footpaths have helped swell numbers so far, tourism chiefs said.