National Park calls for tighter foot and mouth controls

The way large areas of public access are closed and the way buildings are cleaned up are two key lessons to be learned ahead of any possible future outbreak of foot and mouth disease, according to the Lake District National Park Authority.

Now these two points will form the basis of the authority's official response to Defra's public consultation exercise about how any future outbreaks should be dealt with.

Members of the Policy and Overview Committee today supported a report from Conservation Manager Andrew Herbert, which recognised the "devastating impacts on the environment, community and economy of the national park" during the 2001 outbreak.

The report said the way any future outbreak was managed was "of great importance" to the National Park. The Authority wanted to ensure any outbreak was effectively controlled from an agricultural viewpoint, but in a way that maintained as much public access as possible to allow other parts of the rural economy to continue.

Since the 2001 outbreak, the Government has introduced the Crow Act, which has resulted in far more land being generally available for public access. This development could also provide new specific opportunities to increase the amount of land open to the public in any future outbreak, compared with last time.

The effective "blanket closure" of public access to the countryside in 2001, Andrew said, was due to the additional powers given by the Government to allow local authorities to close land and rights of way across wide areas.

"We now know how damaging this was to the rural economy, in particular tourism. The situation was not helped by the lack of risk assessment guidance when the powers were introduced."

If in any future outbreak the Government only allowed closure of land within a three kilometres radius of infected premises, much more land in the national park would remain open for access. This would limit the damage to tourism, especially if potential visitors were reassured about where they could still go in the countryside.

Another key area of impact during the 2001 outbreak was the damage caused to some traditional farm buildings by the cleansing and disinfection procedures used.

"We are keen to co-operate with Defra to formulate clear guidelines for dealing with any future outbreak. We would hope that our own building specialists would be able to offer specific recommendations in relation to caring for traditional Lake District buildings and following approved working practices," Andrew added.