Farmers from Bradford and the surrounding areas met the shadow agriculture minister to highlight fears that foot and mouth could spread to the Aire Valley.

Around a dozen farmers who are living on the doorstep of the outbreak at Settle told Conservative James Paice of their plight yesterday at the Five Flags Hotel in Denholme.

James Lawn, 28, of East Manywells Farm, Cullingworth, said he was frustrated that footpaths had reopened so soon and people had been ignoring signs to stay away from the countryside.

"I am very fearful about it now, this is a very dense livestock area similar to Cumbria and it can soon come down the whole valley but footpaths have been kept open and no consideration has been given to us at all.

"I want to see it being taken seriously, I think they forget about it when all people see is wagons taking carcasses into Bradford."

John Gullet said his farm at Buttershaw had ground to a standstill since Government restrictions put on several weeks ago in the wake of the Queensbury outbreak prevented him from moving any cattle. "We are running out of silage, straw and money and want action to be taken to lift this ban."

Third-generation Clayton farmer Michael Priestley, whose business is next to Myrtle Grove farm which was infected, said decisions being made now were affecting the future of farming. "Agriculture is not a mechanism you can switch off for a while, people have to move stock to farms," he said. "I breed a lot of breeding bulls and people are desperate to have them because this is next years crop of calves."

Mr Paice, who is also a former farmer, told those at the meeting that quick action was needed to prevent a situation in the Shipley area where grass was growing but there was nothing to graze on it.

"From what I have seen from the farmers I do not think 'petrified' is too strong a word," he said. "We asked for a slaughter within 24 hours of the crisis breaking - and the Labour Government acted two or three weeks later."

David Senior, Conservative candidate for Shipley, said he believed the countryside had been let down by a lack of Government action.