Bradford Council was today locked in a row with the Government after it was ordered to re-open the district's footpaths just days after another massive slaughter of livestock.

The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has told the Council it must re-open footpaths on Friday - unless they fall within a three mile zone around specific foot and mouth outbreaks.

The move comes as scores of people took to Baildon Moor yesterday despite the area still being officially closed.

Notices informing people that they were banned from the moor, which is an infected area, were ignored because people believed they were open again following the removal of sheep and lambs.

Around 1,000 sheep were culled on the moor because farmer Gary Greenwood's son Richard, 32, runs Newlands Farm, in Low Bradley, where 230 sheep and cattle were slaughtered last Thursday after foot and mouth was identified in his animals on nearby Smouldon Moor.

The cull took place after DEFRA decided the animals had come into "dangerous contact" with other foot and mouth infected sheep.

Gary Greenwood described the slaughter of his flock as his "worst day in farming".

Today - as more sheep were pictured lining up for slaughter on Baildon Moor, with transporter trucks queuing to take them away - an emergency meeting was due to take place between the Council's executive member for the environment Councillor Anne Hawksworth and officers over the issue of reopened areas.

But Coun Hawksworth believes the move has come too soon and helped to create confusion over the issue of which areas were safe to use by the general public.

She said: "I am very, very concerned that Baildon Moors were used again yesterday.

"The whole issue of opening up the pathways is extremely serious. The Department of Environment, Food and rural Affairs has now told us that large parts of the district must be opened this Friday July 20.

"We have challenged this and asked for a deferment but have now been informed our request has been turned down.

"I just think it's case of DEFRA saying that foot and mouth is finished, get the pathways open and let's get back to normal.

"But it's most patently not finished in this district and we have very much worked on the side of caution because we think this was the right thing to do."

She criticised the handling of the outbreak by Government officers and said the Council had been kept in the dark on major issues, including the use of Waddington's rendering plant for carcasses.

Baildon residents said they were unaware that the sheep were to be culled on Saturday and were stunned when they saw people using the moor yesterday.

The massive cull took place while only a few miles away thousands of fun-seekers enjoyed Baildon Gala - the biggest day in the village's calendar.