Sheep farmers and walkers in Cumbria are in conflict over a planned five-mile sheep fence.

The fence would divide Uldale Fell from Caldbeck Fell, so sheep brought in to replace animals lost in the foot-and-mouth cull can learn the limits of their territory.

The National Farmers' Union said the fence would be a temporary structure, lasting no more than 10 years.

But opponents say it will spoil the landscape and restrict rambling.

'Natural home'

There is to be a public inquiry early in 2003.

It would be the first time a fence had been used on the common to separate the two flocks.

The Lake District National Park Authority favours shepherding, but farmers say they cannot afford this.

Groups including Friends of the Lake District say damage to the landscape and lack of access to walking will outweigh the benefits of the fence.

And Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, told BBC News Online: "This is a sensitive landscape, and to put a fence here would devastate the natural beauty of the area.

"It is not a "temporary fence" as it will be there for 10 years, and to call it so is misleading."

Gill Shearer, of the National Farmers' Union in Cumbria, told BBC News Online: "When the sheep go out into the fell they know where their natural home is, they may wander a bit but they do come back.

Flocks culled

"However the sheep on these fells were all culled out during the foot-and-mouth outbreak, and the fence is needed to hone into the new sheep where their patch of land should be.

"The fence is only a temporary measure and we are a bit disappointed at the attitude of some people towards the plan.

"It is just over a year since the last case of foot-and-mouth and farmers are trying to turn things around."

Culling wiped out flocks of Swaledale and Herdwick sheep from the Cumbrian hillsides in 2001.