THERE is something bemusing to we Craven folk, who have seen more than 250,000 sheep slaughtered in two months, to watch the lead story on national television about 4,000 being culled in the Brecon Beacons. Truly the Settle cluster is the forgotten outbreak of the whole foot and mouth epidemic.

This has been a good summer with generally warm, dry conditions since early May - exactly the sort of conditions which are supposed to prevent the spread of foot and mouth. Instead the disease refuses to go away, making a mockery of Government predictions that the campaign to eradicate the disease was "in the home straight". Every day it seems there are three or four new confirmed cases.

In Craven the outbreaks have petered out. Cynics would say that is because there is virtually no livestock left to infect. But it has spread - and there are growing signs of panic in the Ministry that the disease will still be here at Christmas.

And amidst it all are tales of vast sums being squandered and huge profits being made. We have heard rumours of contractors paid a fortune for "work" which is never carried out, with a rake-off for corrupt officials. These tales are told and retold with no evidence but spread like the disease itself.

Meanwhile the calls for vaccination grow. As the disease continues to spread the case for culling as the most effective means of combating the disease becomes increasingly difficult to support.