Angry parish councillors and farmers in the Esk Valley area of the North York Moors National park have hit out at movie-makers headed by Tyneside star Jimmy Nail, filming close to foot-and-mouth infected areas.

Danby Parish Council, which covers a large area of the valley, is to send a strong protest to Defra, the Government ministry responsible for dealing with the disease, North Yorkshire County Council, and the National Park Authority.

Clerk Pam Reeves said: "Residents, especially farmersd and those with businesses, are very angry that this filming has been allowed to take place, and the unit's crews are using a National park car park for their vehicles.

"Many people have suffered in our area as a result of the disease, and tourist businesses have been very hard hit and farmers lives decimated."

News of the filming came when the parish authority received official notices that a road - New Way - on Danby High Moor, is to be closed until to October 7 for filming.

"What is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. Someone is obviously making some big money out of this filming.

"We have had no agrcultural shows or sporting events in the valley in an attempt to reduce the risk of infection spreading and now this has happened," said Mrs Reeves.

Mike Pratt, head of information at the national park authority's headquarters at Helmsley, North Yorkshire, said permission for the filming had been allowed by Defra under licence.

"We allowed the vehicles to use the Moors Centre car park because it kept them off the moors as part of a bio-security measures," he added.