DISTURBING failings in contingency plans and tactics and a determination to control things from London typified the Government's response to the foot-and-mouth crisis and prolonged the county's suffering, according to Cumbria's own public inquiry into the crisis.

Inquiry chairman Professor Phil Thomas said the team found "confusion, disorder and delay" where, according to the Government's own version of events, there had been a considered and measured approach to last year's epidemic.

The Cumbrian inquiry report says DEFRA shunned local expertise until "several weeks into the epidemic" and found evidence that the ministry was "insular in its attitude" and "almost secretive in its approach to sharing information".

Resources became "rapidly over-stretched" and there had been no rehearsal of multi-agency contingency plans.

It also found that vets in the field had "limited autonomy" and the need to get authorisation for action from DEFRA HQ in London slowed things down on the ground and that delays in the application of the slaughter policy prolonged the Cumbrian epidemic.

Professor Thomas said he had been struck by how much better the outbreak had been dealt with across the border in Dumfries and Galloway and thought that Cumbria would have been better off had it been more in control of its own of destiny during foot-and-mouth.

" The closer to the problem the decisions are made the better the thing will be - that is undoubtedly true," he said.

The whole crisis, said Professor Thomas, had left DEFRA with "a major hill to climb to re-establish the confidence of the community".

He said the ministry needed to settle debts and other outstanding issues in order to re-establish some credibility.

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