THE Prince of Wales will visit some of the region's worst foot-and-mouth affected areas today as he endorses a major rural recovery campaign.

Prince Charles is expected to enjoy a tipple at the Craven Heifer Hotel, in Stainforth, North Yorkshire, as part of the Pub is the Hub initiative.

The Prince has given his backing to the campaign, which will be launched with the publication of a shock report showing that more than half of all English villages have no pub, and seven out of ten do not have a shop.

The study, produced by the Countryside Agency, says the loss of the "local" often means that the focal point of a rural community disappears.

As well as meeting farmers in Settle and Skipton - two of the country's foot-and-mouth blackspots - the Prince will be shown the scale of the epidemic in Knayton, near Thirsk.

In his foreword to the report, Prince Charles calls on rural entrepreneurs to help revitalise and maintain essential local services, including village pubs and post offices.

"Rural communities, and this country's rural way of life, are facing unprecedented challenges," he said.

"Now, perhaps more than ever in their history, they must draw on their resourcefulness and resilience, built up over centuries, to meet changing circumstances and find new ways to help themselves. But they need not, and indeed cannot, do it alone.

"Most people are agreed that one of the major difficulties for those living in today's countryside is a lack of services."

The report, produced together with the British Beer and Pub Association, says six rural pubs are closing every week.

It focuses on the Diamond Inn pub, in Butterknowle, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, which opened a new sub-post office over a year after the village's last facility had closed. Residents had previously been forced to travel to neighbouring Cockfield to collect pensions and allowances