THE countryside's image needs a major makeover in the wake of foot-and-mouth, a landowner's leader has urged.

The North-East branch of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) will give evidence next year when Northumberland County Council holds its inquiry into the crisis that devastated farming and rural tourism.

The association represents estates, farmers, smallholders, tourist businesses and other rural enterprises in Northumberland, the county where foot-and-mouth disease was first identified.

Regional director Antony Haslam said: "Unless confidence returns to the public, the rural economy will continue in a state of recession.

"Many members' experiences of dealing with the disease as it affected them makes for an appalling insight into the day-to-day problems, heartache and profound distress they have experienced this year."