Protesters from Craven's farming community lined the streets in Settle yesterday to complain to agriculture minister Nick Brown about the way the Government was handling the foot and mouth crisis.

Bearing anti-Government placards, the protesters complained party politics was ruining Settle and that the politicians were "playing with their lives".

One of the slogans read "Settle culled by politicians".

Mr Brown, who was visiting the area for the first time since the start of the crisis, tried to assure members of the public that the Government was doing everything it could to eradicate the disease.

He said: "The community is holding together incredibly well.

"They are determined to get back to normal and everyone accepts that the best way to do this is to bear down on the disease and get on top of it."

Mr Brown advised farmers to keep looking towards their own bio-security (disinfecting and precautionary measures) and gave the projected figures for outbreaks in this area as running between single and double figures.

He added that the Government was planning to give out £711 million to farmers in compensation.

Mr Brown said: "Farming is not finished in this area here nor anywhere else in the UK."

But some onlookers who have been devastated by the crisis asked why it had taken so long for Mr Brown to visit the area.

He replied it was not his presence in the town that would bring the disease to an end.

The agriculture minister arrived in the town early in the afternoon and was dropped off at Settle Town Hall for a meeting with National Farmers Union and Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food officials, the army, Craven District Council and other interested bodies.