WEST Devon and Torridge MP Geoffrey Cox this week condemned the Government?s lack of action on the continuing problem of Bovine TB. On Monday Mr Cox lead a delegation of farmers and National Farmers Union representatives from across West Devon and Torridge to a meeting with the minister for animal welfare, MP Ben Bradshaw. Mr Cox said: ?We were able to convey to Ben Bradshaw a sense of the powerful feelings of Torridge and West Devon?s farmers about the failure of the Government to summon the courage to take the hard but necessary decisions needed to save livestock farming in areas most intensely affected by Bovine TB.? Mr Cox also raised the knock-on effects of the Bovine TB. ?We made a powerful case to Mr Bradshaw that tabular valuations must be revisited to achieve greater fairness and that the cost of Pre-Movement Testing must not fall exclusively on the farmers,? said Mr Cox. His comments coincided with the publication of a report detailing the precarious state of British farming. The report concludes that ?a viable UK farming sector is very close to being lost forever?. Mr Cox said: ?Exactly one year ago I said it would be irresponsible for the Government to continue to ignore the urgent necessity of, among other measures, taking action to tackle the reservoir of infection in the wildlife population. ?A year later a consultation has been held and seemingly buried.?
