WORRIED residents fear stray horses are spreading foot-and-mouth.

Wandering horses in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, have been a headache for authorities in Wear Valley for years.

Police and Wear Valley District Council receive about 20 to 30 phone calls a day from people reporting horses roaming in West Auckland and Bishop Auckland.

Now the problem has been compounded by the crisis.

Tracey Stores, of South Church, narrowly avoided three ponies in Auckland Road at the weekend and they were later spotted wandering along the Bishop Auckland bypass.

Mrs Stores said: "I am not complaining about the horses, I am just worried.

"If I thought they would stay where they were, I would feed them myself, but they are just wandering about on their own, while we have this foot-and-mouth raging."

Wear Valley council's acting executive director, Eddie Scrivens, said: "It's not our responsibility unless they go on our land. They are county council responsibility if they go on county council land and if they wander on to roads it is up to the police.

"We're looking at arrangements not just in Wear Valley, but at a county level as well, but I would really think at a time like this people who had animals would respect the fact that they should be kept from places of infection."

Durham County Council is consulting the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food over the problem.