THE region's farmers are facing ruin and are losing their faith in the Government over its handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis, it was said last night.

The news comes as there were calls from the farming community for the Government to help hill farmers and reconsider the ban on livestock movements.

But others said the ban should stay in place to prevent the disease from spreading and causing the same financial devastation it caused in 2001.

Last night, the Government came under fire after initial tests revealed the strain of the virus found in cattle near Egham, Surrey, was the same as the one that infected two herds near Pirbright, ten miles away, last month.

Last night, vets gave a Norfolk pig farm the all clear.

The Welsh Assembly relaxed animal movement restrictions in Wales at midnight to allow Welsh farmers to take their animals to slaughter at Welsh abattoirs.

In the North-East, Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services (UTASS), which represents 400 farmers in the North Pennines, wants to see the ban lifted outside the affected area in Surrey.

Upper Teesdale hill farmer Richard Betton said it would provide a vital lifeline for hill farmers. He said: "The Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) knows where this latest outbreak comes from - at Pirbright - and if it imposes a zonal ban on that area, it will give a lifeline to farmers like us, outside the South-East."

Mr Betton, who has farmed at Harwood for 26 years, said: "I am very worried that the Government will sit and wait, and every day that goes by, the logistics of getting stock off the hills gets more and more complicated, until it becomes impossible.

"The hill sheep sector is very, very vulnerable at the moment because we had very bad prices last year.

"For the first time, I can see some farmers, who will rise to any adversity, losing heart. There's a limit to what they can take."

But Alastair Davy, of Low Oxque Farm, in Marrick, near Richmond, North Yorkshire, said moving cattle was too risky and could lead to a repeat of 2001.

He said: "For us to face another crisis like 2001 really is unthinkable. We still have awful memories of last time.

"There is no option but to limit movements until it is safe.

"It only needs one movement to get it back up here and we do not want to see it again."

"What is infuriating is it has been let loose from a Government laboratory. It is an absolute disaster."

He said some farmers had just finished paying debts incurred during the 2001 crisis and were now being hit at the worst possible time in the season, which many depended upon for their year's income.

"We have been let down by our own Government in a time when we can ill-afford it. It will ruin people."

* CHURCHES throughout the region are being urged to stand by to offer support to farming families.

The Rural Officer for the Ripon diocese, Canon Leslie Morley, has warned that the latest foot-and-mouth outbreak could spell disaster for the farming community.

He has written to parish priests and lay leaders urging them to closely monitor the impact of new restrictions on livestock movement and to get in touch with farmers locally to find out what problems they face.