The crisis is now entering its seventh month. Since the onset, more than 3,750,000 animals have been slaughtered, there have been more than 1,900 cases and more than 9,000 affected premises. The impact on farming and the countryside has been enormous. Here, we examine the impact on one village, Hutton-le-Hole.

IT has been a long and frustrating summer in Hutton-le-Hole, as the foot and mouth disaster continues to put the surrounding North York Moors largely out of bounds.

Even the local artists are feeling the frustration. "People like myself like to go out on the moors to paint our sketches," said Bill Potter-Campbell, chairman of the Hutton-le-Hole Art Group, as he prepared to open the group's annual exhibition at the village hall. "I've been having to paint from old sketches this year."

But it's the local businesses, so dependent on tourism for their income, who are suffering the most from the continuing crisis. There were visitors walking around the village during my visit, but not the throngs you might expect at a top tourist attraction on a sunny day at the height of the holiday season.

Barry Jenkinson, who runs the Moorlands guest house, formerly Burnley House B and B, reckons business is down by 40pc on previous years. "Overseas business - the Americans, the French - has gone completely," he says.

"It normally accounts for probably 25pc of our visitors. It has been wiped out altogether." He reckons the number of British visitors has dropped by 20pc, with the situation actually getting worse in recent weeks as people have heard that North Yorkshire is still being affected by the disease.

Gordon Fairhurst, proprietor of the Barn Hotel and Tearooms, calculates business is down by 23pc. He says the tearooms are doing okay - it's the accommodation side that has been hardest hit.

Tearoom customers Christine and Graham Tait, from Shropshire, say they switched to the North York Moors for their holiday from the Dales because they wanted to avoid the Settle foot and mouth hotspot. They say their holiday has been spoilt less than it would be for others because they are cyclists, and the tarmac roads across the moors are the one right-of-way that has not been closed.

The Ryedale Folk Museum has had fewer visitors than it was hoping for, but managed to avoid the dreaded slump. "We have worked exceptionally hard to stand still," says curator Martin Watts. "Everybody's help has been most appreciated." He singles out local media coverage of the museum's attractions for praise.

Down at The Crown, the village pub, landlord Phil Mintoft is unsure about his future.

A PUB landlord at Hutton-le-Hole believes he might not survive the impact of foot and mouth disease, as experts warned it may drag on into the winter.

Phil Mintoft, who has run The Crown for 16 years, spoke exactly six months after the start of the disastrous outbreak.

He said business was down by 25-30pc as some visitors stayed away from the North York Moors tourist village.

"We have had no foreign tourists at all," he said. "I have lost £30,000. It's the worst season I have had. But we have had no help whatsoever."

Asked if he could survive if the winter was also even quieter than usual, he said: "I just don't know. It just depends what help we get."

He said he applied for a rates reduction at the beginning of July but had heard nothing from the Valuation Office in Leeds.

The Valuation Office said it had received more than 74,000 rating appeals by the end of July from businesses affected by the outbreak.

A spokesman said the office was giving priority to people most significantly affected, and it hoped to have dealt with these by December 31 at the latest.

Stephen Wright said officers had been gathering information about the disease's impact on rental values.

Updated: 09:29 Thursday, August 23, 2001