The extra £4 million of Government money announced to help rural Yorkshire businesses hit by the foot-and-mouth crisis to survive the winter will certainly ease the problem but is nowhere near enough to compensate for the losses suffered during this last grim year.

Summer is when the countryside puts on the fat to see it through the cold, dark, lean months. It is largely during those months that the tourists, day-trippers and walkers visit the pubs and cafes, stay at the hotels and guest houses, and spend money in the village shops and stores.

That has not been happening this year. Despite the Prime Minister's reassurance that the British countryside was open, to the sceptical public the continuing closure of many footpaths meant that large chunks of it were still shut.

Even now footpaths remain closed in parts of North Yorkshire, particularly in the Dales where so many businesses depend on visitors from outside the area. The big danger is that with a reduced amount of money coming in, they will not be able to invest in their long-term future and could be permanently weakened.

When the spring arrives, the picture could well improve if foot-and-mouth has by then been seen off. People from the towns and cities will then hopefully come to the aid of the countryside, visiting it as much as they can and giving its many small businesses the cash injection they so badly need.

Until then, though, the new £4 million, taking the total of crisis funding for the region so far to £11.3 million, must be distributed wisely and allocated quickly to limit the damage as much as possible.