The word is responsibility
By John Dickinson on 20th Sep 07
As the question is asked as to why a trial went ahead in a Foot and Mouth surveillance zone, we would also ask why a research centre is sited in a major farming community...
LIKE all of you, I imagine, I just couldn'tbelieve the news that broke late last week, announcing another outbreakof the dreaded ‘Foot and Mouth' disease. I won't insult yourintelligence by banging-on about the ins and outs of this, all of whichis available on a 24-hour basis, and we are all well aware of theramifications.
Virtually instantly, many clubs immediatelycancelled events, in sympathy with our farmer friends, even though manyof these events were hundreds and hundreds of miles from the outbreak -which centred on the previous outbreak in Surrey.
Which makes it all the more remarkable that theColin Appleyard-sponsored ACU British Championship Trial went ahead onSunday - even though the venue actually falls within the officialSurveillance Zone, just a few miles from the outbreak. And the firstperson on the phone to me on Monday morning - and I had only justarrived back from two-weeks away and wasn't really prepared for this -was Robin Luscombe, a director of Colin Appleyard Ltd - wanting to knowexactly why the Championship round had gone ahead in such a sensitivearea.
I was of course stumped for an immediate answer.Robin rightly pointed out that the British Sidecar Championship round,(that he was due to ride in) the Yeadon Guiseley club's Mel HarrisonTrial, had itself been cancelled even though it is over 250-miles awayfrom the outbreak.
Robin had written a letter to T+MX (printedopposite) - and was ringing to see if we had received it - in which heasks some very pertinent questions. The most pertinent of all is, whatabout the competitors who have ridden their machines in an area that isdeemed to be at high risk from harbouring the ‘Foot and Mouth' virus.Should they really be riding elsewhere this weekend, very likely onagricultural land - given that the virus can apparently live for up to50-days?
I have asked John Collins, chairman of the ACUTrials Committee, for an official statement. Printing schedulesunfortunately do not allow me to wait for a reply but if one arrives wewill print the salient points.
The ACU office at Rugby was actually very quickoff the mark with a press release last week with chairman, Jim Parker,stating, and I quote: ''Off-road Motor-cyclists and enthusiasts mustnow, once more, be patient and consider the livelihoods of those whocould suffer from the devastating effects of this agriculturaldisease.''
So we run a British Championship Trial in the heart of the affected area...
REGARDING the origin of the latest ‘Foot andMouth' outbreaks, a government research centre at Pirbright, I reallycan't get my head around the siting of such a facility. I don't thinkyou would set up an explosives test lab in the middle of, say, apetro-chemical plant, so why on earth do they site a lab containing ahighly contagious animal virus in the midst of a major farmingcommunity?
There may well be a sensible answer - if you know of one I would very much like to hear it.
The only sensible solution to me is to immediatelyclose down this facility and try and re-home it in a more suitablesetting. Downing Street, Whitehall or Westminster would be fine with me- the same places I would suggest for the siting of nuclear powerstations and their resultant toxic waste. My only motive is a feelingthat they would get the required security at all times.
Politicians never have a problem dumping anything even remotely dodgy on countryside dwellers. They are keen to tell usthat there is no danger whatsoever with a 21st century nuclear powerstation - but of course they must be built well away from London, justin case. So using the same logic - that anything iffy must be kept wellaway from the city - I suppose it is a no-brainer to site a virusresearch lab slap-bang in the middle of prime farming land. Never mindthe consequences, to them it is simply a case of ‘Not In My Back Yard'.
Meanwhile, nearly 300-miles from the latest‘F&M' outbreak, the biggest and most important lamb market of theyear, which should have been staged at Hawes in Yorkshire this week,has been cancelled.
The farmers' stress levels are maxed-out onceagain, which is why off-road clubs are standing shoulder-to-shoulderwith them as we collectively hold our breaths and pray that the latestoutbreak doesn't explode into the catastrophe that was 2001.