DRIVERS in a foot-and-mouth disease blue box zone who take a back road to avoid a disinfection point have been criticised by dales residents anxious to stay clear of infection.

Farms in Upper Weardale have so far managed to stay free of foot-and-mouth even though they are surrounded on al sides by contaminated areas.

But residents say that motorists are risking bringing in infection by deliberately driving around a council-manned spray installed east of Stanhope last month by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

One walker counted 25 vehicles in half an hour using the normally quiet back road between Frosterley and Stanhope, which joins the A689 west of the disinfection point.

These passed through several farms and were mainly coming out of the blue box restriction zone which extends west from Stanhope and north to Northumberland and Cumbria.

A Weardale resident, who asked not to be named, said: "I am angry about local people not wanting to help farmers. Is it so difficult for people to drive through the disinfectant?"

A Defra spokesman urged motorists to use the disinfection point, which sprays vehicles with a citrus solution, saying: "The concentration is less than in a fizzy drink and it should not harm their vehicles. We cannot move the spray for various reasons, but we ask all road users to make use of it as their part in the fight to rid the area of foot-and-mouth disease."