Re-think called for on closure of auction mart

Miss McIntosh, has criticised the Government for its recent decision to close the mart, leaving farmers without a local collection point for their livestock and called for its re-opening.

She said: "Local vets and officials should decide local collection points, not follow a central diktat from London. The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs in London (Defra) has overruled its country counterpart in Leeds by ordering the auction mart to close its doors to business.

"This is a wholly unnecessary decision and one that was conducted in the characteristically high-handed manner we have come to expect from the department.

She added it had caused confusion and ignored the fact that Defra in Leeds was more aware of local conditions than Defra in London.

The closure of the mart came to light at a meeting with farmers in Thirsk on Friday.

Chairman of the mart and local farmer, Mr Harry Woodhead, complained to Miss McIntosh that he had been told that day he could take deliveries and had made arrangements with a local farmer only to be told the next day that the mart was to be closed down.

"Farmers must now either take their stock to collection points further afield, or pay haulage costs for half-empty loads."

Senior vets in London over-ruled local Defra vets at Leeds, over whether sheep in a field adjacent to the auction mart created a disease risk.

But since October, 200 cattle a week have gone through the collection point at Thirsk, in an area where thousands of animals were culled during the foot-and-mouth outbreak last year.

Mr Woodhead appealed to Miss McIntosh for help, saying: "This is typical of the stupidity we have seen throughout the crisis. There is no set policy."

Miss McIntosh said she had made urgent representations on behalf of constituents to the Secretary of State at Defra, Margaret Beckett, asking that she overturn the decision to close the mart and resolve the confusion that had been generated."

l Farmers' meeting: page 17.