THE damning report into the mishandling of the foot-and mouth epidemic has thrown up many criticisms.

The 200-page Lessons Learned inquiry, chaired by Dr Iain Anderson, has attacked Government Ministers for "in-competence" and the "primary mistake" of not calling in the Army in the first week of the epidemic - which cost at least £8bn.

It has highlighted how the blanket closure of footpaths sent out the message to tourists that rural Britain was closed - a message that cost businesses in Worcester and the surrounding countryside massive amounts of money.

And it has made it clear that householders living close to the foot-and-mouth burial site at Throckmorton should have received compensation.

Payments, the report says, "might have gone some way to mitigating the distress" felt by local people. We're sure it would.

The trouble now is that the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has so far refused to set up a compensation scheme.

That is plainly wrong. As we have pointed out many times in arguments against the proposed camp for asylum seekers at Throckmorton, the residents in that quiet corner of England have already done their bit for the country.

Compensation for having to endure the burial of - according to official figures - 130,000 animal carcases on their doorstep is the least they can expect.