RESIDENTS living near the proposed mass burial ground for up to 400,000 animal carcasses between Meeth and Petrockstowe are demanding answers from MAFF who, they feel, have 'steam-rollered' them in a bid to get a site up and running.
Locals fear the new method of disposing of the carcasses in giant, clay burial chambers could result in 'environmental disaster' in years to come and they are objecting to the use of a private lane to gain access to the site which means residents being forced out of their homes.
MAFF purchased the five fields at Meethfields from clayworks company Imerys last Friday after investigating more than 30 sites in the search for an area to bury animals slaughtered as a result of the foot and mouth crisis.
At a heated public meeting in Petrockstowe's Baxter Hall on Saturday — which was attended by more than 200 people — villagers pleaded with MAFF and Army representatives to use an access route from the main road through the local clayworks which could minimalise disruption to the villages of Petrockstowe and Meeth.
There was fury that the Army had not secured access rights through the clayworks when they purchased the site.
John Pratt from Meeth said it was essential to have this access: 'We all accept that this is a very difficult solution but we are not prepared to be sacrificed by bureaucracy because you are in a hole,' he told the panel.
The meeting was told the preferred route was using the private road which would be tarmaced and widened to take up to eight lorries an hour.
Mark Tomlinson, who lives at the entrance to the road with his wife and three children, said his family's life would be ruined if this had to happen.
'We are nothing to the Government,' he said.
'We will have to move lock, stock and barrel — are MAFF going to find us somewhere to live or will we still be living here when work begins? If so, I want somebody to explain this to my three children.'
Lt Col Robin Vickers said every effort would be made to try and reduce the impact on local people but it was important to get the site up and running to deal with the backlog of carcasses.
Each of the 18 clay burial chambers will be approximately 80x30 metres in size, ten metres deep and will lie on a one-metre thick clay base.
The complicated barrows will rise two metres above the ground and will be capped with clay. As the animals gradually degrade, liquid will be pumped out through a lining and treated before being disposed of.
A spokeswoman for MAFF told the Okehampton Times on Tuesday that various options were still being looked at to see if an alternative route could be used.
'We will have to use some form of access as soon as the burial ground is available which should be in about a week's time,' she said.
'We cannot rule out the fact that we will be using the private road either temporarily while we sort out another route — or permanently if nothing else turns up.'
She said one way or another the site needed to be up and running to take animals as soon as possible.
'We are talking about three or four households being affected if we use the private road and at the moment we are discussing with them how best to meet their needs,' she said.
Public relations officer for clay company Imerys, Ivor Bowditch, said if the lorries came through the clayworks there would be implications not only for the Meeth site but also at the company's Newton Abbot site where the clay was blended.
'We have had considerable concern expressed by our customers about this,' he said.
'If customers start to see we have foot and mouth lorries going through the quarry it will have an affect on our business. The directors are still adamant that the quarry has got to be ring-fenced from the burial site.'
But West Devon and Torrington MP John Burnett, who urged Agriculture Minister Nick Brown this week to exercise emergency powers to ensure a right of way through the clayworks, said he could not believe that anyone could think foot and mouth disease could be passed through clay.
'There is no way if they allow vehicles through it would taint their product and MAFF has offered to disinfect the vehicles three times on each journey,' he said.
Mr Burnett said his constituents stood shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with the farmers because they understood that hundreds of thousands of carcasses could not lie on farms for days and weeks on end but using a private, narrow lane to gain access to the burial ground was 'utterly wrong'.
Local resident Brian Oldridge said people in Petrockstowe and Meeth had been 'deceived and steamrollered' by MAFF and they had been faced with a 'fait accompli' on Saturday.
'We are concerned about the road but also the environmental impact of something that has not been done before,' he said. 'We want assurance from MAFF that this method will not cause any pollution.'
Farmer Julian Andrew said the ground was very waterlogged in that area and he was afraid there would be leakages from the burial chambers.
'It's an environmental disaster waiting to happen,' he said.
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