The most suitable choice is decided according to local circumstance.”Councillor Anne Glendinning, from Cumbria County Council, said the council supported the proposal after assurances that the process was safe. “There has been growing concern across the county about the length of time between slaughter and disposal, and the cull would make that situation worse,” she said. “Using landfill should speed that process up significantly, and help alleviate the appalling stress and upset being felt by farmers.”The small Herdwick sheep are thought to have been introduced by the Vikings. Tough enough to survive on mountainsides through wild winter weather, they are also vulnerable to foot-and-mouth disease The virus has come close to the northern edge of the park. An outbreak was confirmed at a farm near Dacre last week.Mr Tiplady said the flocks were “irreplaceable”. They survived partly because Potter gifted her Lakeland farms to the National Trust on condition the Herdwick sheep she loved were preserved.

The Trust owns 93 farms in the Lake District, to which are attached 25,000 Herdwicks.. Ministry of Agriculture officials blocked an attempt late last week by Michael Meacher, the environment minister, to open up uninfected areas of the countryside, The Independent on Sunday has learnt. Ministry of Agriculture officials blocked an attempt late last week by Michael Meacher, the environment minister, to open up uninfected areas of the countryside, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.
In a move that has caused fury in parts of Whitehall, Jim Scudamore, the chief veterinary officer, rebuffed an initiative from Mr Meacher, the newly appointed head of the Government’s rural task force, to open up footpaths in areas far from any outbreaks of foot and mouth disease.The move has led to charges that the ministry appears prepared to risk the collapse of the entire rural economy in pursuit of draconian measures designed to protect a relatively limited meat export market.Mr Meacher has urged people to visit the countryside, to go to market towns and roadside restaurants in an attempt to cut back the losses being caused by the loss of the tourist trade, estimated to be running at over £100m a week.But he has been told that this will have limited effects when virtually all the country’s footpaths and rights of way, even in areas far from any outbreak, such as East Anglia and the south coast, remain closed, on pain of a £5,000 fine. The Countryside Agency late last week launched new pages on its website to “help people find out where they can go in the countryside”, but could find few paths to put on it.Sources say that on Friday Mr Meacher tried to persuade the ministry to issue new advice to local authorities that would have enabled them to lift the ban on footpaths in areas where the risk of passing on the disease was negligible. For a few hours it seemed that he would succeed, but eventually his initiative was rebuffed after representations by the Countryside Landowners Association (CLA).The CLA was Mr Meacher’s main opponent in the long battle, finally won by the minister, to institute a right to roam.Thirty-nine more cases of foot and mouth were discovered yesterday, including for the first time an outbreak on a farm in Shropshire, taking the total number to 282 in the UK.Ministers yesterday insisted they would push ahead with the pre-emptive cull of up to 300,000 sheep, pigs and cattle within two miles of known outbreaks. This is despite mounting opposition among farmers and animal welfare groups to the killing.While the planned cull in the Lake District has been postponed pending Monday’s visit to the area by Mr Scudamore, the slaughter did get under way in the Scottish highlands.A group of rebel farmers, led by fuel protester David Handley, have threatened to take ministers to court in an attempt to halt the cull.It was also reported last night that some farmers in Cumbria might illegally move healthy sheep into the National Park area of the Lake District in an attempt to save their animals from being killed.Faced with the mounting anger among farming communities, ministers yesterday toured the countryside dispensing ministerial soft soap.Chris Smith, the Culture Secretary, was in Cumbria to reassure farmers facing ruin. He said ministers were looking carefully at a number of measures, including emergency business tax relief and a hardship fund for those in the tourism industry who had seen their incomes dry up.Proposals for delaying the payment of tax bills by bed-and-breakfast owners, farmers and country hotels will be put to the Prime Minister on Tuesday.”We will be seeing if there is more the Government can do.

What I cannot do is produce an instant cheque book,” Mr Smith said.It will come as little respite to the rural communities whose people are growing suspicious that the increasingly desperate measures to control foot and mouth are motivated by a desire to avoid delaying the general election beyond 3 May.Touring the Midlands, Michael Meacher estimated that it could be costing rural businesses £250m a week in lost trade. Some of the lost business has been due to a fall in tourism from the United States where some people have confused the foot and mouth outbreak with “mad cow” disease.British Tourism chief executive Bob Cotton said possible losses from the US could amount to £2bn. Janet Anderson, the tourism minister, will fly to the US on Tuesday to try to revive tourist confidence in Britain. She believes it is linked to press reports in the States which have claimed that Britain is virtually quarantined, that the food is unsafe to eat and tourist attractions are totally cut off.. The 30ft lobster was nowhere in sight.