PENRITH livestock mart is to close - a victim of last year's foot-and-mouth crisis.

Virtually the entire area was culled out, leaving the mart with no throughput.

The shock closure was announced on Wednesday and Penrith Farmers' and Kidd's announced that the rest of its farmstock business was being transferred to Carlisle-based Harrison and Hetherington.

H&H will take over the running of the marts at Lazonby, Kirkby Stephen, Middleton-in-Teesdale and St John's Chapel from September 1.

PF&K plan to expand their other business activities and concentrate on land &estate agency, fine art and furniture, PF&K Finance, and their food processing business which includes Blackpool Abattoir and Cumbrian Fellbred.

There are no immediate plans for their large Penrith site, alongside junction 40 of the M6.

Mr David Thomlinson, sales and marketing director for H&H, said it was a sad day for Penrith.

He believed the main cause of the closure was that so many farmers in the area had been culled out during the fmd crisis. The closure announcement would shock many people who had may be not realised just how big the impact had been.

"It is sad for the people employed there and it is sad for a lot of farmers in the Penrith area who have supported the mart all their lives," he said.

However Mr Thomlinson said H&H had every intention of keeping running the other marts previously run by PF&K

"We are dedicated livestock men and these marts are in livestock areas," he said. "Farmers want to sell their stock in marts and we are dedicated to sell them.