FARMERS, holiday businesses and others hit by the foot and mouth outbreak are facing bankruptcy and, ultimately, will need to be compensated.

The cost of this might well be in excess of what the Government or other responsible authority is capable of meeting.

The latest pay-out on the lottery is £5 million to each of four winners and when people are facing the loss of everything they have worked for, this is an obscenity.

Therefore, a temporary re-structuring of lottery rules and revised scales of prizes could, one might think, be brought in for the duration of the present emergency, using a surplus of lottery money for compensation even if legislation needs to be resorted to in order to achieve this object.

ALBERT MORRIS, Clement View, Nelson.