FOOT AND MOUTH UPDATE
Page 7
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Delays and leakages
ot by Miles Brignall
The Freight Transport Association has moved to reassure hauliers whose vehicles are involved in removing carcasses as part of the foot and mouth crisis that all downtime will be paid for.
A spokesman for the organisation is keen to refute a claim in one magazine that many of the hauliers engaged on MAFF's behalf were spending long periods waiting for work, and were concerned that operators would not be paid for this time.
"I don't know what this is all about," he says. "All the hauliers engaged by us are being paid a daily rate to be there and if they are waiting to be deployed it shouldn't make any difference to them as they are being paid irrespective of what they are doing."
However, protests around the country are growing following some incidents of spillages from vehicles carrying animal carcasses.
Protesters outside a Northumberland disposal site at Widdrington stopped vehicles from entering the site and demanded to meet agriculture officials.
A MAFF spokesman says: "This is a serious and highly regrettable situation. The seals are checked before the lorries begin their journey to Widdrington—the leakage is largely disinfectant fluid."
As CMwent to press negotiations were continuing but the site was still closed. Over the weekend police in Essex were called to disinfect a road after a truck carrying slaughtered animals developed a leak.
According to the FTA such leaks should not be happening.
"As soon as they are sealed an amount of water is placed in the body and the back tipped up and left for three hours," says a spokesman.
"Only when they have passed this test are they allowed to carry the carcasses."