VILLAGERS living near the foot and mouth burial pit site at Throckmorton have been reassured that water supplies will not be contaminated following a scare at another site in the county.

Five buried trucks containing animal carcasses are being dug up at Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove, after fears the oil could contaminate the water supply.

Around 130,000 carcasses were buried at Throckmorton Airfield in April 2001, and there were fears that water might be contaminated by the huge amount of decaying carcasses.

Councillor Malcolm Argyle, who represents the area on Wychavon District Council, said Defra had reassured the villagers that they were not at risk.

"The leakage from the pits has reduced considerably," he said. "We've been reassured by Defra to the point where monitoring equipment is so sensitive it picked up a newt that had fallen into one of the cells and was starting to decay.

"If they can pick up a decaying newt, albeit slightly, they're going to pick up anything that's disastrous. That's reassured me."

He added: "Everybody's going to be anxious because it is on our doorstep but Defra is showing us it is doing everything it possibly can."

Coun Argyle said the community was also being reassured by an independent environmental study on the area and so he felt everything was being done to reassure the community.

"There's no clear evidence of contamination from the landfill site either," he said. "The burial site is also monitored by the environmental health people on a very regular basis. People who are ignorant to the facts ought to be told all this."