AFTER a week of desperate campaigning, the Government finally bowed to pressure to seal off a burial pit at Tow Law this week.

On Monday work began on sealing off the mass grave of more than 12,000 animal carcasses - the source of a foul stench that villagers say has made their lives a misery.

After bombarding the Ministry of Agriculture (Maff) with telephone complaints about the smell during the week, villagers angrily confronted officials at a meeting on Friday and told them fumes from the site were causing them headaches and sore throats and was making their children vomit.

Maff signalled its intention at the meeting to close the main burial area prematurely and on Monday confirmed its decision.

But not before police moved in and arrested 14 people after protests began outside the Inkerman site on Saturday.

After hearing at the meeting on Friday that the rotting carcasses would release hydrogen sulphide, between 30 and 40 grandmothers, children and parents joined the protesters who have kept a daily vigil outside the site.

Six people were charged with offences ranging from aggravated trespass to assault on police and will appear in court on May 22.

Maff is installing filters and other precautions to prevent gas escaping, but many villagers are not reassured.

But the ministry's agreement to close off the main burial pit to curb odours is seen as a step in the right direction by residents.

There had not been enough carcasses to fill the site as quickly as anticipated and the exposure of the site to the air had created the smell. Instead animals will be put in a smaller trenches that can be swiftly sealed over.

Maff had a £4.5m budget for the site and expected to fill it with about 200,000 carcasses. It is not yet known how many more will be taken to the quarry.

Protester Sylvia Goodhall said: "It's a start. At first they were talking about putting hundreds of thousands of animals in there and it would go on until December. I don't think it will be anything like that now.

South West Durham MP Hilary Armstrong said the decision was partly due to the town council's hard work.

She said: "The town council have all the time been asking sensible, pertinent questions and putting the case for the whole town. I was able to build on that and talk to people they probably wouldn't have got hold of."

She added she had also asked for the site to be monitored for a considerable time and had an agreement that that any readings would be published regularly.