One of the country's major flower shows will beat the foot-and-mouth crisis when Harrogate Spring Show is staged at the Great Yorkshire Showground, from Thursday to Sunday, April 26 to 29.

A spokesman for organisers, the North of England Horticultural Society, said there were no plans to cancel the season's first nationally-recognised show as the showground has had no livestock on its site.

However, speculation is mounting as to whether the Great Yorkshire Show, in July, will go ahead amid the present epidemic.

l Hopes that Fountains Abbey, one of the country's most popular National Trust visitor sites, could reopen have been dashed.

The abbey, its grounds and adjoining Studley Royal Deer Park, near Ripon, which normally open all year round, have been closed since the foot-and-mouth disease became a crisis two weeks ago.

Trust beauty spots which will reopen next weekend are Nunnington Hall, near Helmsley; York Treasurer's House; Rievaulx Terrace and Temples, near Helmsley; and the Old Coastguard Station, at Robin Hood's Bay.