DISSENTING farmers are putting closed signs back on footpaths that cross through their land because they fear walkers could bring foot-and-mouth disease.

All footpaths in County Durham which lie more than 3km from the nearest foot-and-mouth case are now open.

But the move has provoked fear amongst the farming community in Weardale.

Brenda Skidmore, from North Hanging Wells Farm near Eastgate, and nine other farmers along one footpath are so worried they have put back foot-and-mouth closed signs.

Brenda said: "We've gone through enough hell without the dangers brought by walkers coming through the farms.

"You still have to have a licence to move bails and go on the roads, which is understandable.

"The farmer next door has to disinfect the road four times a day when he takes his cows to be milked and needs a licence to move them, and he says he doesn't mind doing it. But he wants to know why does he have to do all that when you have all these feet coming through the farms?"

Weardale County Councillor John Shuttleworth said there are a lot of paths which pass through farms and fields in Weardale.

He said: "There's no consistency. People think this is helping bring back business, but it has been rushed through too much. Someone may have walked through an infected area then walk through somebody's farm yard."

Durham County Council warned they would not accept the farmers' actions.

A spokesman said: "Anyone re-erecting a footpath closure notice without proper authority is acting outside the law and both the County Council and Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will take a very dim view of it.

"There is no justification for it.

"If we receive confirmation that this sort of thing is happening we shall have to start making random checks and taking whatever action is necessary to ensure that the relevant paths remain open."

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

Updated:16.05 Friday, June 29