ministers are being urged to bring an immediate halt to the disposal of animal carcasses at a North-East burial site and compensate locals for their anguish.

The calls were made yesterday as Durham County Council, Tow Law Town Council, Derwentside District Council and Wear Valley District Council joined forces to fight for the closure of the controversial burial site at Inkerman, Tow Law.

Councillors agreed that enough is enough and there was no longer a need for the site.

Durham County Council leader Ken Manton said they would be urging the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to immediately stop all further disposals and to cap and seal the existing burial site.

He said: "Bearing in mind the outbreak has tapered off in the region, and that carcasses are currently being imported from elsewhere, there is no justification for its continued use."

Councils are seeking special funding for community initiatives in the Tow Law area to "acknowledge the significant distress which its residents had borne on behalf of the region as a whole".

Protestor Emma Nicol welcomed the backing from the local authorities. She said: "We want to keep the pressure up and we are glad that they have called for this site to be closed.

"We don't agree with re-opening the site if there is another outbreak. We are campaigning on health grounds and rotten carcasses still give off toxic gasses, whether they are from County Durham or not."

Campaigners met Ste-phen Hughes MEP yesterday to hand over a petition.

He told the group that there had already been five European guidelines broken in relation to Inkerman and vowed to take up the fight again when he returned to Brussels next week.