Animal disease teams face cuts

Councils have been told they must cut their budgets for tackling foot-and-mouth and bluetongue this year because of a funding mistake by Defra, it has been claimed.

Animal health teams are facing cuts of up to 12% because of a shortfall of more than £1 million between what councils were promised and the cash available, the Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services (Lacors) said.

Lacors, whose work includes overseeing local authority animal health services, said councils were promised a total of £9.77 million this financial year under a scheme set up to fight animal disease following the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak.