The last remaining county designated 'at risk' from foot and mouth was at last granted 'free' status by DEFRA at midnight last night. Northumberland had one of the first confirmed cases in February last year and it has taken eleven months for it to regain its 'free' status.

However, it may be several weeks before restrictions on livestock farmers can be lifted and the country be officially recognised as clear of the disease by the rest of the world.

NFU President Ben Gill said it was excellent news: "The lifting of the last 'at risk' area will remove a long, dark shadow from the countryside.

"This is the news that farmers across the UK have been waiting for. We all hope that this is truly the beginning of the end of this appalling chapter.

"But we must now go to the European and world authorities as soon as humanly possible to get our disease-free status back."

In all, there were 2030 confirmed cases of the disease, 140 of which were in Yorkshire. Some 595,000 cattle, 3,306,000 sheep, and 142,000 pigs have been slaughtered. Other animals slaughtered numbers 4000, bringing the total number of animals slaughtered at just over 4,000,000. The cost to UK farming has been estimated at some £2.4bn by the Countryside Agency and the cost to tourism has been estimated at between £2bn and £3bn.

In light of the new declaration, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has announced that all but 2% of the National Park's footpaths and bridleways will be open to the public by the weekend. The Penine Way and the Dales Way will be open for the first time in ten months and other footpaths and bridleways in the Malham, Settle, Grassington and Burnsall areas of the National Park will also be open by the weekend.