Ryedale's biggest agricultural event - the Ryedale Show - has been cancelled.

The show's committee took the decision to axe the event at a special meeting last night because of fears of spreading foot and mouth disease.

In a further development, the Rosedale Show - one of the oldest agricultural events in the district - has also been called off.

The cancellations mean very few shows, if any, could be taking place in North Yorkshire this summer.

The Thornton-le-Dale Show and the Huby and Sutton Show were both called off last week.

Committees from many other shows, such as the Driffield Show, have yet to make a decision about whether their events will go ahead.

One of the few shows going ahead is the Great Yorkshire Show, in Harrogate, which is set to take place without livestock.

Peter Woodall, secretary of the Ryedale Show, which would have taken place on July 31 at Welburn Park, said cancellation was unavoidable.

"The land we use has livestock on it, and though we could apply to move the animals off the land, under current rules they would have to stay off the land 28 days after the event," he said.

"This also means that if they did catch foot and mouth disease we could be held responsible - it's just not a risk we're willing to take."

Mr Woodall said: "We had been preparing for this since October - we had schedules ready for printing and we also had all our judges lined up.

"All this now has to be undone, so cancelling is creating even more work. It's a terrible shame, but that's just the way things are at the moment.

"We are planning to keep the same committee and concentrate all our efforts on next year's event."

Janet Dring, chairman of the Rosedale Show - which is more than 150 years old - said the decision to cancel had been taken early to save the committee money.

"Everyone at the meeting agreed that it would be inappropriate to expect farmers to take part in the show," she added.

"We have taken the decision now because if we'd taken it later we would have incurred costs for printing brochures and for organising the event."

The show, which was to have taken place on August 18, attracts 5,000 visitors.

"A lot of shows are tourist-orientated but the Rosedale Show is one of those which has a strong agricultural tradition," said Mrs Dring. "It is a terrible shame but we will now concentrate all our efforts on next year's event."

Updated: 11:09 Tuesday, May 01, 2001