A PERSONAL pledge from Prime Minister Tony Blair has given a ray of hope to villagers fighting for a foot-and-mouth burial site on their doorstep to be shut down.

Mr Blair promised to try to give people in Tow Law, County Durham, a closure date for the Inkerman site, where 45,000 carcasses have already been dumped.

More than 10,000 animals were taken to site over three days last week following new outbreaks in Northumberland.

Tow Law Town Council chairwoman Jenny Flynn and clerk Catherine Reed told Mr Blair that the site was so close to Tow Law that people could see lorries unloading carcasses from their homes.

They went with their MP, Hilary Armstrong, the Government's Chief Whip, to a hastily-arranged 20-minute meeting in Trimdon Labour Club, on Saturday morning.

Mrs Flynn said: "We got the impression that Mr Blair genuinely wanted to try to do something to help, and he promised to try to give us a date.

"This is so distressing for everybody in Tow Law. We can stand in our homes, or at the side of the road 700 metres from the village school, and watch dead animals being dropped into the pit."

Mr Blair's agent, John Burton, who was at the meeting, said: "Tony is very much aware of the local feeling about the site and it trying to get a definite date for its closure."

Two foot-and-mouth cases were confirmed over the weekend in the Allendale Blue Box area, bringing the total in the recent outbreak to 21.

About 520 cattle, including 250 dairy cows, were slaughtered yesterday at Frankham Farm, near Fourstones, while another 465 cattle and 3,500 sheep are being culled on "contact" farms.

A second case was also confirmed on land at White House, Allendale.

All culled animals will go for rendering.

Figures from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have revealed that 50,000 animals have been killed in the North-East in the ten days up to the end of last week.

This is a fifth of all those killed in the region since the start of the outbreak in February.

A further four cases were confirmed in Cumbria over the weekend in the Kirkby Stephen, Appleby and Brough areas.

Read more about the foot-and-mouth crisis here.