AS many English counties slowly re-open footpaths and bridleways, the outlook in the Settle-Clitheroe remains grim with five new cases reported over the weekend and mass culls still underway.

Two of the news cases were at Threshfield and Barnoldswick and the number of cases in this cluster now stands at 78. There were also three new cases in Cumbria yesterday, quashing hopes that the disease there was under control.

The new outbreaks coincide with an announcement from the Countryside Agency that five English counties, mainly in the southeast, has reopened all their rights of way.

• In another development, NFU President Ben Gill, who farms near York, has had his first meeting with Margaret Beckett, the newly appointed Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Mr. Gill described it as a "good meeting" and added: "We are both urgently committed to achieving a sustainable recovery plan for farming after more than three years of desperate farm incomes and foot and mouth disease.

"The Secretary of State stressed her determination to eradicate the disease as swiftly as possible.

"The NFU will now be looking to work closely with DEFRA on the details of a recovery plan. On a broader front, we need to develop further a strategy for agriculture to bring back profitability within a quality environment and rural countryside."