A FARMING leader has applauded the findings of a preliminary report which described the handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis as "lamentable".

Dorset county chairman of the National Farmers' Union Simon Banfield said he totally agreed with the main thrust of the report which calls for a national contingency plan to fight any future outbreak of the disease.

The report of the Devon public inquiry into the outbreak said such a plan should "cascade" down via the region to parish level and should be reviewed, tested and rehearsed up to every five years.

Mr Banfield, who farms at Puddletown, said: "I can't disagree with these findings at all - we can't and must not go through that again. We need to make sure we have the systems and people in place to tackle another outbreak of this disease.

"The point I have been making all along is that it has been amazing we went from 1967 to 2001 without an outbreak, not that it was surprising it happened. It was utterly predictable we were going to get it again.

"Lamentable is also the word I would use to describe the handling of the crisis. The right hand did not know what the left hand was doing - it was organised chaos."

The report made a number of other suggestions including tightening of import controls on meat and livestock products with new legislation and a ban on animal movements from day one of any future outbreak.

Mr Banfield said: "I don't think the government would want to go through this again and they must tighten up imports to prevent it."