A £1.2M abattoir due to open in Wensleydale next spring has been hailed as a symbol of hope for the farming community.

Mr Maurice Hall, manager of Hawes livestock mart, said the proposals on the outskirts of Bainbridge could be the key to the revival of the industry in the dales.

McIntyre Farm Services, which is to develop the business at its base at East Borwins, has pencilled in the grand opening for March.

By then, a new complex will have taken shape at the site, just off the A684 Bainbridge to Hawes road, and 11 new jobs will be on the way to the area.

The project, launched 20 months ago, is the brainchild of Mr Martin McIntyre and his wife, Lindsey, who have run an unlicensed slaughter business for home consumption since 1997.

Mr McIntyre is a licensed slaughterman and butcher and is currently working as a slaughterhouse foreman in Norway. The couple lost their own stock in a foot-and-mouth-related cull during the summer.

"We have a 450-strong customer base across the dales to Cumbria, Craven, Swaledale and Northallerton and demand has become so high that our present facilities can't cope," said Mrs McIntyre.

Discussions with Mr Dan Weston, of the Northern Dales Meat Initiative, in late 1999 outlined the couple's options. They could stay as they were but risk closure through European regulations, upgrade to a low throughput abattoir with just 20 livestock units a week or develop a modern, small, high throughput abattoir.

"We went for the third option because we are keen to provide a service to the farming community, which has faced a terribly difficult time over the past couple of years," said Mrs McIntyre.

She stressed the operation was not wholesale and most animals killed at the site would be bound for farmers' markets, direct retail and local butchers' shops. It would also serve farm-based co-operatives such as the Yorkshire Lamb brand and Wensleydale Fine Foods.

Casualty slaughter would be carried out and the business would still handle home kill. Organic slaughter, whereby animals must be the first kill of the day and hang separately from other stock, would also be offered.

Mr Weston helped the couple put together a detailed management team to take the project forward. It includes Mr Adam Wellings, of Carlisle-based Armstrong Watson consultants, accountant Ms Alison Watts, Ms Sue Kelly, of One North-East, Mr Nick White, from North Yorkshire county council, Richmondshire district council economic development officer Mr Lee Morison, Coun John Blackie, Ms Pauline Teale, of Yorkshire Forward, and Mr Hall from Hawes mart.

Mr Hall said the new abattoir was good news for the area but added it was up to farmers to ensure its success.

"The whole success will depend very much on being able to market the meat that comes out at the other end," he said. "We will have good quality produce going in and we have a big job of work to do in marketing the end product.

"It is up to the farmers now to get themselves together to make the best use of the abattoir. The opportunity has been given to them and they must grasp it."

The project was a beacon of light at the end of a very dark tunnel for the agriculture industry. "Potentially, it is the key to the revival of farming fortunes and a symbol of hope," said Mr Hall.

Full planning permission was granted by the Yorkshire Dales national park authority earlier this year and plans were drawn up by specialist abattoir builder Mr Jack Shearing, of Norfolk, who still practises at the age of 78.

Funding for the scheme was secured from the European regional development programme and, weather permitting, the buildings should be complete by early next year.

"It will start getting commissioned in January, which means animals will be coming through to make sure everything is working as it should, and we should start to interview for staff at the beginning of January," said Mrs McIntyre.

Once at full capacity, in its second year, the project will employ 11 people, many of them part time, as well as Mr and Mrs McIntyre, who have two daughters, Toni, aged two, and seven-month-old Shannon.

"Slaughter staff will be multi-skilled, including butchering, and we will offer all the necessary training, which means local people who haven't got experience will be able to apply," she said.

The abattoir is registered with the intervention board for the cattle slaughter scheme and with Defra, the Prince's Trust Dale scheme which encourages young dales people into business, the Humane Slaughter Association, the Soil Association, the National Trust, the Yorkshire Dales national park authority and Hawes and Skipton marts.

"We want McIntyre's to become a centre of excellence in the local food processing chain," said Mrs McIntyre. "We are dedicated to the farmer and we have strong links with other companies offering existing services. A lot of big abattoirs have gone down and the market is a bit wobbly but the foot-and-mouth crisis has increased the need for small abattoirs.

"This will be something of a flagship for the north, the first abattoir to be built in the new millennium."

Steelwork has been tendered for, construction should begin by late October and the building is expected to take shape quickly.

"It will move fast when it happens," said Mrs McIntyre, who works part time at High Hall old people's home in Bainbridge. "As long as the bad weather doesn't come before November, the shell will be up and the roof on and work can continue inside no matter what sort of a winter we have."