CAMPAIGNERS and local residents were celebrating victory yesterday after the National Trust bowed to mounting public pressure and reopened the famous Studley Royal Deer Park, near Ripon, to vehicles.

The World Heritage Site parkland had been closed to vehicles for seven months because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

While protestors accepted the closure initially, they claimed the trust had dragged its feet in reopening the entrance when hundreds of other rights of way had restrictions lifted.

Footpaths through the park had been opened in August but the trust continued banning vehicles.

A spokesman for the trust said that, although vehicles were now being allowed through, measures to reduce the spread of disease to the 500-strong herd would remain in place until they were advised it was safe to lift them.

Ripon campaigner Barbara Fisher, who won support from Ripon City Council and Boroughbridge Town Council, said: "At last the National Trust has got the message. This access has been treasured by the public for generations and could have been opened earlier bearing in mind the hundreds of other restrictions lifted elsewhere in the county."

The trust acknowledged that many regular visitors were keen to return to the park by car, but said vehicles had been prohibited because they posed a higher level of risk to the herd