RESTORING the Ash Moor burial pit to agricultural land is still at the top of the agenda for Devon County Council, which is planning a meeting with DEFRA officials and the Environment Agency.
The Council's development control committee at County Hall last week, emphasised that restoration of the pit remained its 'number one priority'.
This follows a decision by the committee in November to give the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) a four-month deadline to close the controversial pit at Meeth, built at the height of the foot and mouth crisis to bury 400,000 carcasses but never used.
Speaking at a meeting last week, assistant county environmental director David Andrew said: 'We have yet to receive a formal response from DEFRA but a meeting is being arranged between DEFRA officials, county council and district council officers and the Environment Agency.
'It is there that we will make it absolutely clear that the committee's first priority is that the Ash Moor pit be reinstated for agricultural use.'
Mr Andrew also reported to the committee that correspondence had been received from Meeth Parish Council, giving its full support to the deadline given to DEFRA.
The lack of consultation with the local community and the failure to carry out proper environmental impact study infuriated local residents, who have been campaigning with West Devon and Torridge MP John Burnett for the site to be grassed over since the end of the foot and mouth crisis.
They claimed if the mass burial pit was ever used, it would cause an environmental disaster because of the high water table, but the Government has not ruled out using it as part of a contingency plan in the future.
The concerns of residents were listened to by Dr Iain Anderson, who is leading the Government-instructed Lessons Learned Inquiry into the foot and mouth crisis, when he visited Ash Moor two weeks ago.
The £5.6-million pit currently costs £20,000 a week to maintain.