PROTESTERS from Craven's farming community lined the streets of Settle yesterday to complain to Agriculture minister Nick Brown about the Government's handling of 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 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 added the Government was planning to give out £711 million to farmers in compensation. "Farming is not finished in this area here or anywhere else in the UK," he said.

However, his words did little to ease the minds of onlookers.

The minister arrived in the town early afternoon and was dropped off at Settle Town Hall for a meeting with NFU and MAFF officials, the army, Craven District Council and other interested bodies.

Earlier in the week Tim Yeo, shadow agriculture secretary, visited Skipton Auction Mart, and called for a top army officer to be brought in and take control of the crisis in the Yorkshire Dales.