SUN-seekers making the most of the weekend weather came under fire last night, because of the crisis.
Youth leader Billy Hunt drove across Bollihope Common in County Durham, between Teesdale and Weardale, and could not believe the number of people who were out on unfenced farmland.
"They are feeding the sheep, and they are walking their dogs on the fells. There are cars all over," he said.
Mick Hodgson, the National Farmers' Union group secretary for South West Durham, said last night: "We don't know where these people have come from."
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