A COUNTRYSIDE watchdog wants councillors to be sent on training courses so they can better appreciate the challenges facing farmers as the rural economy battles with the aftermath of foot-and-mouth disease.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) is suggesting compulsory instruction to ensure members sitting on committees fully appreciate the economic and environmental benefits which may be had from landowners' planning applications.

"We want to see more positive, flexible and efficient planning systems to help us create the new enterprises and jobs which are so desperately needed in the countryside," said the CLA's Yorkshire regional director, Dorothy Fairburn.

"We do not believe the local planning authorities currently have sufficient resources or manpower to carry out all their responsibilities effectively.

"There should be adequate training for planning officers and compulsory training for councillors who wish to sit on planning committees," she said.

The CLA is also pressing for clearer planning policies which would allow landowners a better idea of what sort of proposal is likely to be acceptable.