A FARMER on the fringe of North Yorkshire's foot-and-mouth outbreak has been left confused and bewildered by conflicting advice from two Government departments.

Peter Hutchinson has been told by Defra to disinfect the road which divides his grazing fields and milking sheds twice a day.

But the Environment Agency has told him they are concerned about the wash and brush up because it could cause river pollution.

"As if things aren't bad enough without getting conflicting advice like this," said Mr Hutchinson, of Westwick Hall, Roecliffe, near Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire.

His farm is on the fringe of the so-called Thirsk bio-security fortress, under strict foot-and-mouth controls from Defra as the disease maintains its grip on North Yorkshire.

But Mr Hutchinson has secured a licence to move his 60-strong milking herd across the road.

The disinfecting task takes 90 minutes, twice a day.

"We are disinfecting the road as we have been told, but Defra has been critical and seems to want it as clean as a hospital theatre. Then I got a telephone call from the Environment Agency saying they were unhappy because the disinfectant runs into a ditch and a stream before it goes to the River Ure.

"I feel very depressed by the whole thing," said Mr Hutchinson. "It appears I'm in a Catch 22 situation."

A spokesman for the agency played down the pollution threat to the Ure.

"Our main concern is that we were not consulted in the first place," he added.

A Defra spokesman said they understood concerns expressed by the Environment Agency and were liaising over the issue.

The latest confusion comes a month after Weardale farmer Dennis Craig hit the headlines when The Northern Echo revealed he had to pay the bill for traffic lights. The lights enabled him to disinfect busy a road crossed by his herd on their way to fresh pastures each day.

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