Walkers are unlikely to be able to roam freely across the moors and dales of North Yorkshire this summer, farmers' leader Ben Gill warned today.

In an exclusive interview, the NFU president said it might be possible only to open up certain areas of the countryside where there was no risk of coming into contact with livestock infected by foot and mouth - such as coastal paths.

"Public access would have to be on an assessed basis," said Mr Gill, who farms near Easingwold.

"We need to take it one stage at a time. You would not want to go up on the North York Moors - and the Dales have the same problem."

Dennis Parker, president of the East Yorkshire and Derwent branch of the Ramblers' Association, said today that ramblers accepted the need for restrictions to continue in some situations.

"Our loss of access to the countryside is nothing compared to the losses of the farmers," he said.

"It's a matter of putting up with it."

But he called on all local authorities to follow the advice of Government to reopen all footpaths where closure was no longer warranted. He claimed some had not yet done this.

Mr Gill said there would be no speedy return to normality once the immediate foot and mouth crisis is over.

Sporadic outbreaks of the disease were likely to continue "for several months", and it would not be time to relax until there have been at least three months with no fresh cases of the disease.

Even then blood tests would have to be carried out on the national herd before it could be certain the country was truly disease free.

"We're on the downhill slope, and things are getting better, but there will be restrictions on sheep for a very long time - certainly for the rest of this year," he said.

Meanwhile, a survey suggested today that more than a third of the farmers hit by foot and mouth disease plan to scale down their businesses, while some intend quitting altogether.

Industry magazine Farmers Weekly, which carried out the survey, said a total of 128 farmers whose infected livestock have been slaughtered were questioned about their expectations once the crisis is finally over.

Six per cent said they planned to quit agriculture altogether - three times the percentage which leave the industry in a normal year, while more than a third, 36 per cent, said they only planned to partially restock their farms.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown today acknowledged that the outbreak was likely to be the last straw for some livestock farmers after four years of depressed incomes.

"What the Government has got to do is to stand by the farming community, to make sure we are there, to help with a recovery programme for the industry, and to do what we can to move away from this over-reliance on production subsidies and towards a more rational support system, including underpinning farming incomes," he said.

Updated: 10:54 Friday, April 27, 2001