COUNCILS and national park authorities across the northern uplands are to be asked to band together to ensure a public inquiry into the foot-and-mouth crisis is carried out.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park authority agreed to sound out other public bodies to see if they will take part in and fund an inquiry into all aspects of the outbreak in the region.

The move was approved by the authority on Tuesday after an earlier motion calling on North Yorkshire County Council to hold a public inquiry was narrowly defeated.

That motion proposed by the park's deputy chairman, Mr Jerry Pearlman, would have seen the park authority hold its own public inquiry if the county council had refused to convene one.

It was defeated after some members felt it would be too expensive and ineffective in the issues it would have covered.

Coun Steve Macare, authority chairman, said: "There is a great will amongst the authority to see that foot-and-mouth disease never darkens this area again.

"To do this we need to record what happened, how it happened and what can be done to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"However, it would be wrong for this authority to take on this responsibility on its own, as we do not have the finances or expertise and, further, as our remit is too restricted.

"As a result, we will be seeing if there is a will amongst other authorities across the northern uplands and to see if we can pool our resources and hold a regional inquiry."

Any inquiry would look to address the steps taken by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to discover the origins of the epidemic and to contain it, the clarity and certainty of communications between the ministry and farmers, the assessment and payment of compensation and the short, medium and long term effects on the area.