CAMPAIGNERS are claiming a partial victory after the Government bowed to pressure to seal off a burial pit at Tow Law.

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

After bombarding the Ministry of Agriculture (Maff) with telephone complaints about the smell, villagers confronted officials at a meeting on Friday and told them that it was causing headaches and sore throats and making children vomit.

Maff signalled its intention to close the main burial area prematurely, and yesterday confirmed its decision.

The ministry admitted yesterday that there had not been enough carcasses to fill the site as quickly as it had anticipated and the exposure of the dead cattle had created the smell.

Instead, animals will be put in a smaller trench, separated into three compartments so they can be sealed over swiftly.

Maff had a £4.5m budget for the site and expected to fill it with about 200,000 carcasses. It could not say yesterday how many more would be taken to the former quarry.

Protestor 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.

"Everyone is over the moon at this news."

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

l A new case of foot-and-mouth disease in County Durham and two in North Yorkshire made for half of the country's outbreaks yesterday, bringing the total to 1,599.

Roads were closed for the removal of animals from Killerby Hall, Killerby, between Darlington and Staindrop. The rash of new cases around Settle in North Yorkshire prompted the National Farmers' Union to urge farmers to keep to disinfection measures.