Farmers anger at more carcass sites

13 April 2001



Farmers anger at more carcass sites

by Robert Davies

The Farmers Union of Wales is angry that the Welsh National Assembly has licensed three more sites to dispose of carcasses culled due to foot-and-mouth.

Spokesman Alan Morris said it was hard to see why land near Swansea, Merthyr and Wrexham was needed when experts claimed the disease had peaked.

Protestors have claimed that smoke and run-off from another site at the Eppynt military range presented unacceptable human and animal health risks.

Their case was boosted when the experts from the Environment Agency confirmed that a bore holed on the site had been polluted.

Welsh rural affairs minister Carwyn Jones claims the hole had been sealed and that advisers agreed that the pollution would not contaminate local rivers.

He refused to accept a call from an emergency meeting of Carmarthenshire County Council to immediately cease burials on the site.

While no new cases have been confirmed in Anglesey for two weeks, the disease has reappeared in north Powys after a gap of 10 days.

Farmers in Monmouthshire are worried it is spreading because of week-long delays in the removal of the carcasses from neighbouring infected units.