A PACKED meeting in Okehampton last Wednesday listened to emotional, angry and determined pleas for answers, aimed at the leader of the Government's Lessons Learned foot and mouth inquiry
Dr Iain Anderson was bombarded with a barrage of accounts of non-communication, lack of accountability and knowledge displayed by officials attempting to control the disease which devastated the West Devon economy last year.
Paddy Tomlinson lives near the controversial Ash Moor burial pit — built at the height of the crisis and intended to hold the carcasses of up to 400,000 animals.
She said: 'The lack of feeling, sympathy and basic understanding was incredible.
'Please hold in your heart how we tried and tried to make them understand what we were going through.
'We were left with unanswered phone calls and downright lies from people who didn't know what they were doing — nobody communicated because they didn't know what to say.'
She said what was needed, during the crisis and in any future outbreak, was someone accountable 'at the top' who knew what they were doing.
Brian Aldridge also lives near the £5.6 million pit, which although never used, costs £20,000 a week to maintain.
He claimed MAFF was 'deceitful and dishonest' when it built the pit without proper consultation. Residents were treated as 'half-wits', he said.
He asked that Dr Anderson's report demand the re-instatement of Ash Moor to grassland, the UK purchase of high-powered incineration equipment and the abandonment of the mass carcass 'liquification barrows' policy, or at least proper local consultation before implementation.
Sonia Lindsay, a West Devon borough councillor from Hatherleigh, witnessed a 'cruel' and 'foolish' contiguous cull of healthy animals carried out just before the 21-day deadline.
She said officials should allow for sensible flexibility in relation to contiguous culling in any future outbreak.
Okehampton vet Phil Davies said communication with MAFF had been a huge problem and a barrier to acting speedily, vitally important when dealing with such an infectious disease.
He said communication with DEFRA is still a problem.
'We are aiming to have someone on the ground, who is known by DEFRA, who can be put in on the ground in the event of an emergency,' said Mr Davies.
Okehampton doctor Paul Nielson said 'intense distress' suffered by those directly affected by foot and mouth impacted on human health in the area — which was likely to continue for some time to come.
He hoped the Anderson inquiry would take full note of these issues.
Caroline Keane, co-ordinator of the Stresscare group, said more needed to be done to prevent the onset of post traumatic stress disorder following the trauma of last year's events.
Alan Andrews of Shebbear is still supporting people after the crisis, some of whom continue to take anti-depressants.
He had been 'appalled' by what many have been through.
'Quite frankly, after I leave them, it makes me weep,' he said.
Dr Anderson said he had the prime minister's 'personal undertaking' that he would be given full access to all relevant government documentation and have 'fullest co-operation' from ministers and officials — but that these interviews, unlike the rest of the evidence, would not be in public.
He rejected claims this would mean the inquiry was a token gesture on behalf of the government — private interviews would be more fruitful, he said.
'I believe I will get more of the candour and exchange that will lead me to understand what the critical issues have been, what went wrong and why it went wrong and I will use it to the full in my recommendations.'
Dr Anderson said all written submissions would be published, as would discussions during public meetings held all over the country.
'All I can say is I am determined we will try our damnedest, we will take this absolutely seriously as it needs to be taken and at the end, it will be judged,' he said.