VILLAGERS campaigning against a mass burial pit hope a liaison group will help them find the answers they demand.

At a meeting between protestors and councillors in Tow Law, County Durham, it was decided to form a panel including villagers and councillors to take residents' fears to the Ministry of Agriculture (Maff).

The 200-acre burning and burial site for infected animals, which lies about half-a-mile from the village, will hold 120,000 carcasses.

Residents are worried about burning on the site, - within sight of Blessed John Duckett RC Primary School - and have voiced strong opposition to the mass grave.

Although Maff has said that plans were discussed with residents at a meeting, villagers still feel there was not enough consultation and, on Friday, vowed to continue their protests outside the former opencast site, which was sold to Maff by owner HJ Banks.

Tow Law town councillor Jenny Flynn said: "There's still a lot of concerns about the site and we will set up a liaison group so we can take these concerns to Maff, and stop problems before they start.

"We have been invited to the stakeholders' meetings at the Newcastle Disease Control Centre, which they hold every Thursday for representatives of groups affected by foot-and-mouth.

"Basically, it is a way to see, from a community point of view, that the whole thing is done properly.

"A large burial like this is going to have a long-term effect. We need to be reassured it is properly constructed, properly maintained and looked after once it is closed."

But resident Jean White said this would not stop the protests.

She claimed people were now fearful that the weight of the cattle in the pit could cause subsidence, and recalled how, some 30 years ago, several houses and a chapel in Tow Law collapsed when an underground coal seam caved in.