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 | | Thursday, 28 February, 2002, 13:47 GMT Farmer's pyre claim may cost millions  Officials may have to decontaminate all pyre sites A Midlands farmer taking legal action against the government claims an animal pyre has left "an ecological timebomb" on his land. Robin Feakins, who runs Sparum Farm in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, wants a judicial review of the way ministry officials handled the clean-up operation. If successful the action could force the government to treat the cremation site, which he estimates could cost more than �2m. However the Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs (Defra) insists it acted responsibly in cleaning up the site and is fighting the court action. In a written submission put before the court on Wednesday, Mr Feakins said his land was left blighted and his livelihood threatened after his farm became a culling centre during the 2001 farm virus epidemic. Soil contamination Mr Feakins' lawyers said Defra had cremated at least 4,000 sheep carcases and almost 1,000 cattle at Sparum between March and April last year. Without Mr Feakins' knowledge, an unknown number of cattle burned or attempted to be burned were born before August 1996 and therefore potential carriers of BSE. There had been a failure properly to bury the pyre ash, which also contained unburned skin and bone and other animal parts, resulting in the contamination of topsoil, his lawyers claimed.
Mr Feakins said the action only related to his farm but the challenge would become a test case. He said that putting right his farm would cost at least �2m and could be much more. "It's been a year of hell," said Mr Feakins. "I'm very pleased about the court action. The silly thing is that we don't need to be in the High Court but Defra have been very stubborn. "We didn't want to go to the High Court but we were left with no option. Cleansing operations "These people have clearly broken every rule in the book but for us to have to go to court is a waste of public money." The farmer's solicitor Michael Barlow said Defra had agreed in court to remove unburied ash from the pyre within 28 days, and to remove within six weeks the contents of a lagoon constructed near farm buildings to hold waste water from cleansing operations. Mr Feakins had complained that cleansing and disinfection were terminated on 27 July 2001 and there was a failure to recommence operations, but they had now restarted. A spokeswoman for Defra said: "Defra believe it lawfully carried out the operation dealing with the control of foot-and-mouth disease at this farm and has not attempted to avoid its responsibilities. "Defra will defend its stand in litigation. "The Environment Agency has inspected the sites of animal pyres and found the majority have not caused any long term pollution." | |   See also: Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top England stories now:  Links to more England stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||
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