Rural businesses take protest to Parliament
Rural hoteliers, pub owners and restaurateurs descended on Parliament last week to present a £12.2b invoice to 11 Downing Street.
They said it represented the cost of foot-and-mouth disease to UK tourism.
About 150 people from rural areas such as Dumfries and Galloway, Cumbria, North Wales, and the South-west of England travelled to London to lobby their MPs.
On the same day, environment minister Michael Meacher defended the £275m the Government has allocated to the tourism industry. He said he was "prepared to consider" extending rate relief for England.
But the protesters in Parliament Square were unimpressed.
Judy Carless, owner of the 40-seat Tarr Farm Riverside Inn in Liscombe, Somerset, said: "When you cut through the spin doctoring, we have received nothing. Mr Blair, we need help now."
Terry Franks, manager of two 10-bedroom pub-hotels in Cumbria - the Royal Oak in Braithwaite, Keswick, and the Waverley in Penrith, said money granted to the development agencies wasn't getting through to the businesses that needed it. "We need cash on the ground," he said.
Meacher added: "The burning pyres are off our TV screens and the disposal [of slaughtered animals] is now largely resolved. Between 60% and 80% of tourist attractions are now open."
But hoteliers from Powys and Cumbria complained that, despite the Government's message that Britain was "open for business", their regions were still not open to ramblers.
By Ben Walker
