Sir, - The problems of foot-and-mouth disease have hit this region very hard. Unfortunately there are still cases arising within the region, and we do not know when the disease will finally go away.

However, I would like to record the enormous thanks which landowners and farmers feel they owe ramblers, and other users of the countryside, for the responsible way in which they have respected the need for disease control, and have stayed away from farms.

Landowners and ramblers have not always seen eye to eye, and I sincerely hope that we can build this respect into a new era of co-operation.

The recent flare up of the disease in the Settle area of the Yorkshire dales has caused widespread alarm, and we cannot tell where any future such hot spots may occur.

Nevertheless, we are very aware of the need to allow access to those parts of the countryside where the risk of spreading the disease is negligible, and we are encouraging our members to open all such footpaths without further delay. This will apply to paths that pass through arable areas and woodland without also crossing grassland.

Good management of the countryside involves balancing the pressures from all the different uses to which the same land is put. It has been quite right to close all access until proper assessments of the risks can be taken; through most of the region we can now start to shift the balance, and we are delighted to be able to do so.

MICHAEL ORDE

Chairman, North East Branch, Country Land & Business Association.

Hexham,

Northumberland.

Culling horror

Sir, - Forget elections for a minute. Imagine a field with contented cattle grazing, cows and their calves at various ages still suckling.

Enter an open topped 4WD containing men with high powered rifles. They start shooting randomly at cows first, one by one from the moving vehicle.

Finally, all that remains are the bewildered calves, some still at the side of their dead mothers; the older ones charging around in blind panic. Then it is time for the guns to be turned on them.

Where do you think this wild west scene took place? Perhaps a film being made somewhere on the American continent with gun-toting red necks. No, it happened here in Britain and took place a few days ago, carried out by employees of our government and yes, paid for by you and me.

Shocked? It was witnessed by horrified locals near Kirkby Stephen during a foot-and-mouth cull. They could not stop it and as yet no action has been taken against the perpetrators.

One accepts that mass slaughter is a grisly business but are we to believe that this is normal practice? Will there be an investigation into this and similar events regarding animal welfare during this fiasco? Of course not, they are only dumb animals after all.

Second thoughts, best keep it quiet, we don't want the onlooking world to take away our rather tarnished "animal lovers" reputation.

Let's face it, being British is hardly something you want to own up to these days.

JOSIE KYME

Whitbecks,

Grinton,

Richmond.

Health questions

Sir, - I was recently thanked for "keeping the heat on," re the Duchess of Kent hospital issue.

A 75-year-old lady from Bedale, she opted to spend some of her hard earned savings on major surgery rather than endure a further year of agonising pain.

She states that the Friarage has no accommodation for private patients and after two days in a "side room" she was then transferred to a large ward without prior consultation. Her planned operation had been deferred for five weeks because the military needed the ward space.

As was publicly announced in 1971, the Duchess of Kent hospital was commissioned to serve as "a general hospital open to civilians in the Richmond-Swaledale-Wensleydale-Bedale area as well as the military personnel and their families resident on the garrison."

Bearing in mind the continual reiteration by Mr Bruce and others of the NHS that the closure of the Duchess of Kent hospital was solely an MOD decision, can we have explanation as to:

Who negotiated the accommodation of the military unit within the Friarage hospital?

Who arranged for purpose-built ward accommodation within the Duchess of Kent hospital to be used as office accommodation for the NHS/PCT staff?

Why the MoD should have been allowed by the NHS to withdraw essential health and welfare services from this area to the gross detriment of thousands of taxpayers?

RON F ASHBRIDGE

Lyons Road,

Richmond