A North-East farmer says the foot-and-mouth epidemic has left him so hard up he is having to share a field with his sheep.

Ken Moore and his wife, Susan, say the epidemic has left their business on the verge of ruin.

The couple have been living in a caravan for several years - but now they can't even afford the rent for an approved caravan park.

Instead, they have parked the 16ft caravan on the steep slopes of Penhill, near West Witton, in North Yorkshire, which is shared with 60 sheep.

The couple hoped they would be free to rebuild their business but reckoned without local planning regulations.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority insists they do not have planning permission - and has served them with an enforcement notice obliging them to move.

But Mr Moore is adamant he will be staying, unless the authorities can help him find a solution to his problems.

Mr Moore said: "I was told to see Richmondshire District Council about housing, but they said they couldn't help because I wasn't claiming benefit and, because we don't have children, we are not a priority.

"I'm not a scrounger and I've never claimed a penny in benefit in my life. All I want to do is work for a living."

His wife said: "Where else can we go? We can't afford to rent a site for the caravan, we're not travellers so we can't use their sites, and we can't park on the road verges without the police moving us on."

The Moores claim they lost a house they rented from the Ministry of Defence in the mid-1990s - without ever being told why - and bought the caravan with what little money they had left.

To begin with, they were allowed to use holiday sites at Richmond and Redmire so they could be close to 60 sheep they keep at West Witton, supplementing their income from the animals with whatever Mr Moore could make repairing dry-stone walls for other farmers across the area.

But work dried up once foot-and-mouth disease swept across the Dales, and the couple found themselves unable to afford the ground rent to keep their caravan at either of the sites they had been using.

Nevertheless, a spokesman for the national park authority pointed out the enforcement notice had been served at West Witton as a result of concern expressed by people living in the village.

"We are pursuing action in response to those complaints in the same way that any responsible planning authority would," he said.

"The couple involved have a right to appeal and it is up to them to decide if they wish to proceed with that."

Although he could not discuss their case specifically, Richmondshire District Council housing chief Colin Dales confirmed that, as the Moores had an income and had no dependents, they may not be on the list of priority cases.

He said: "The first thing they would need to do is register. Then, if their circumstances were to become more desperate, they could find they would be awarded points which could move them up the waiting list."