FARMERS have won their battle to have the main route through a dale disinfected.

Landowners along a stretch of Weardale, between the Cumbria border and Wolsingham, fear that foot-and-mouth disease is closing in on them from both sides, and have been pressing for disinfectant barriers to be placed the A689 to stop it reaching them.

Yesterday, Durham County Council highway chiefs heeded the calls and agreed to allow new-style disinfectant mats on the first A-road in the county.

The six-metre shallow baths of disinfectant will be installed on the A689 west of Cowshill in Upper Weardale, as well as on the B6276 west of Laithkirk Bank, Teesdale and the B6277 near Middleton-in-Teesdale.

They will be in addition to more than 50 straw and carpet disinfectant barriers placed by farmers on minor roads.