A year on, legacy of foot and mouth is still with us

David Higgerson went back to speak to people involved to find out how they were coping and how their lives had been changed...

ALAN Barnes owns Cowden Farm, Great Harwood, the only farm in Hyndburn to be confirmed with the disease.

His farm had bred thoroughbred cattle and sheep for 30 years on the 160-acre establishment.

Many had won Royal England Show honours. They all went after the farm was hit by foot and mouth on March 15.

He said: "The markets are only just opening up again so it is still very hard for us.

"We have been hit by reams and reams and reams of bureaucracy dreamed up by minions who have no idea what life is really like out here.

"I still think this country is vulnerable to it happening again."

AT the other end of the food process, abattoirs like Woodhead Brothers in Colne have also felt the pinch.

Things, says director John Woodhead, still remain tricky.

He said: "We have managed to keep all our workforce on but it has been difficult.

"We have had to work with agencies all the time to make sure we only get meat from licensed premises and farms - there has been no dealing with markets.

"Our concern is that by not having a public inquiry into what happened, the same thing may happen again."

MILLIONS of pounds of aid has been made available to people in help rural areas back onto their feet.

Much of it is aimed at helping farmers diversify into other areas.

In East Lancashire, that is where the Bowland Initiative comes into its own.

It was set up three years ago with the aim of helping farms create business plans for the future and helping them implement them.

John Wellbank, from the initiative, said: "The decline of farming simply stepped up a gear with the arrival of foot and mouth.

"The disease has made farmers realise how frail their industry is and, working within the constraints of the rural community, they are beginning to diversify."

"The number of grants is bewildering and it is our job to find the grants for the farmers and help make sure they have a future.

"It has changed the countryside for ever. The problems were there before, and foot and mouth just escalated the problem."

RAYMOND Binks has been interested in pigs since he got his first litter at 14. Now he is 54 and foot and mouth is one the main reasons he is selling off his farm to developers.

The disease didn't even infect his farm, in Gregson Lane, Hoghton.

He said: "I normally have about 1,100 pigs on the farm but I am slowly winding it down and just have 300 now.

"When foot and mouth was confirmed, there was a total ban on livestock movement. I normally sold about 40 pigs a week but couldn't move any.

"In the end, about 300 had to be taken away and shot because I just couldn't afford to keep them.

"We are in the process of selling up now. The whole cycle of good year, bad year has gone now. There is no margin there now. Foot and mouth is possibly the deciding factor.

"I've got permission to build 12 houses on there now."

"Foot and mouth must never happen again. It obviously came in from abroad and that is where people have to look to make it stop."

THE National Farmers' Union has welcomed the Government's announcement that it is putting up new posters and airports and ports that raise awareness of the disease.

President Ben Gill said: "There can be no clearer lesson from foot and mouth than the fact we need to control imports. These posters will certainly help raise awareness, but farmers will certainly not be happy until there is clear evidence that the situation is improving.

"This country is a soft touch. The fact 315kgs of prohibited food was recently found at Heathrow Airport proves that.

"We need to know it won't happen again. The farming world needed help before - it definitely needs it even more now."

BRIGADIER Alex Birtwistle is the Accrington-educated army officer who was responsible for sorting out the culling process in Cumbria when the diseased swept through farms there.

He is due to speak to one of the three private inquiries set up by DEFRA -- the government office which replaced MAFF in June and set up a base in Gisburn to tackle foot and mouth in the Ribble Valley -- to investigate foot and mouth.

He said: "I understand why people want a public inquiry but people need to feel that they can speak freely.

"We need to make sure it doesn't happen again. I fear it will happen again, because the human condition is geared to failure.

"History is either conspiracy or cock-up, and there are graduations of performance inbetween, which is what we had with foot-and-mouth.

"I could go on for hours. There is a lot to be learnt."

FOR Malcolm Weaving, owner of the Stirk House Hotel in Gisburn, recovery will not begin until the summer.

Farms around him contracted the disease in late May and soon the disease had all but wiped out the animal population in the area. Malcolm said: "We watched our business dry up literally overnight. Everything was fine before. We must be one of the few places in the country still with footpaths closed and the people who book with us to go walking over Easter just haven't bothered this year.

"It will be the summer now before they arrive and we have had to push the conference side of our facilities."

DAVID Lloyd is the headteacher of Grindleton Primary School. Very few pupils are connected directly with farming, but all were very worried.

Mr Lloyd said: "The pupils had to walk over disinfectant mats to get into school and it was something we talked about a lot.

"They live in a rural setting and were worried and upset by what was happening. For us, it was very difficult because we were being told different things by different organisations.

"I still think the area is suffering. Many farmers don't know if they will go back to the business."

THE shape of this year's Royal Lancashire Show also hangs on the decision of DEFRA.

Show chairman Rennie Pinder said: "Although the disease is gone, we have to talk to DEFRA every week about what we should do.

"We may have to go without the cloven animals again this year."

It would be sad, but what can we do?" The priority has to be to make sure the disease stays away.

"I think it is important people remember just what damage foot and mouth has done. It caused massive problems for everyone and that will last for a long time.

"The amount of guidance from DEFRA is bewildering for us but the priority has to be to make sure the disease does not come back.

"It has created extra problems which were not there before."

MP Nigel Evans is still calling for a public inquiry.

He said: "People have a right to know what went on and they won't know that until a public inquiry is held.

"The Government needs to keep putting money into the rural community to help it back on to its feet and also make sure this never happens again.

"I have spoken to so many people whose lives have been ruined. Farming needs help."

Margaret Beckett now head up DEFRA. She stated the Government's determination to help the countryside at a conference in Wales last week.

A spokesman for DEFRA said: "We have three inquiries on the go at the moment.

"We are waiting for the results of those and advising people how to remain vigilant with bio-security measures."

AT Nutter's Farm in Newton-by-Bowland, Norman Nutter knows farming has changed forever.

She said: "We didn't lose any animals but things were hard work. We had no-one to sell to. So many people went out of business.

"It was a case of sitting and waiting and hoping that you wouldn't be affected. It was a terrible thing to happen.

"From it all, we need to be sure it won't happen again.

"Prices are picking up now but every time we bring in new animals, we can't sell existing ones for 21 days.

"But farming has changed for good. It has forced us all to look at what we will do for the future."

At Bank Top Farm in Sawley, farming has yet to begin again.

Farmer Sarah Bolton said: "We haven't started again yet and, to be honest, we are not sure what we are going to do. It has devastated us."