VILLAGERS have vowed to carry on fighting against a mass burial pit near their homes where the first carcasses are due to arrive tomorrow.

Residents at Tow Law, County Durham, have held protests at the entrance to the former opencast coal site - which was sold to the Ministry of Agriculture (Maff) by owner HJ Banks for the disposal of dead animals -since news of the proposals broke.

Last night, Tow Law residents remained defiant.

Jean White, who lives in the village, said: "We don't want them to even start bringing the carcasses here. Too much can go wrong.

"We have not stopped protesting since day one, and we will keep going down there.

"We want to know how many carcasses they are going to dispose of, when it is going to stop, and we can't get an answer.

"We have been told it will remain open until foot-and-mouth has finished and that is unacceptable. We don't want everyone else's brought here."

Read more about Foot-and-Mouth here.