THE ban on transporting livestock has been an unavoidable directive in the wake of the ever-deepening foot-and-mouth crisis.

The move has the support of the agricultural industry because farmers know that the risk of the infection spreading out of control is too horrible to contemplate.

So why is the country still dithering over whether to call a halt to horseracing?

Rumours abound about the impact the outbreak may have on the Cheltenham Festival or the Grand National. Yet uncertainty remains about if, or when, the sport will have to take a break.

Here in the North-East, some of the most prominent racehorse trainers, including Mary Reveley, and the Easterby family, are also farmers.

Wilf Storey, who trains horses and farms close to the quarantine zone around Heddon-on-the-Wall in the Tyne Valley, goes as far as to call The Jockey Club "irresponsible" for allowing race meetings to continue.

Michael Dods, another farmer-trainer, based at Denton, near Darlington, also believes that racing should be stopped to reinforce the attempts to stop the infection spreading.

In our view there is a clear contradiction in banning the transportation of livestock and allowing horses - many of them trained by farmers - from being driven up and down the roads of Britain.

The Government has taken every opportunity to hammer home the message that everything possible must be done to contain this deadly disease.

So why isn't it bringing The Jockey Club into line?

Operation cost

THE true cost of Operation Lancet is not easy to gauge. Cleveland Chief Constable Barry Shaw put the figure at £3.25m in a report to the Police Authority last week.

Critics, including MP Ashok Kumar, believe the price paid by local taxpayers has been much higher. They even claim it could be double the official figure.

Yesterday, with questions again being asked about the cost of Lancet, a police spokesman said this: "The information provided is all that is in the public domain. It is not our intention to provide data at a more detailed level."

Given that this is public money we're talking about here, don't the people who are paying have a right to know the data in detail - down to every last penny