WORK at a county foot-and-mouth burial site is continuing to progress as Britain looks set to be declared free of the disease.

The pit at the disused airfield in Throckmorton, near Pershore, was dug in April to dispose of the massive number of animals culled in Worcestershire and Herefordshire.

Peter Luff, MP for Mid-Worcestershire, says he visited the site just before Christmas.

"I was very impressed with what I saw. They're getting very close to completion," said the Tory MP.

"They're making good the surface of the pits so things can grow. It's being covered over."

He said there were no complaints from members of Bishampton and Throckmorton Parish Council about the site.

"I rang them before I visited to see if they had any problems I needed to know about and they said they hadn't," he added.

"They wanted to stop holding the liaison meetings because they were happy with the progress."

But one villager remained frustrated with the management of the site.

"I've attended numerous liaison meetings with members of DEFRA and their appointed consultants who are supposedly managing the site," said Mark Mills, who lives in Throckmorton.

"At each meeting throughout autumn, construction completion dates were promised, only for the deadline to be moved at each successive meeting.

"This is obviously frustrating and does nothing to install any confidence."

The pit holds around 110,000 cattle, sheep and pigs, buried at the height of the foot-and-mouth crisis in April.

Mr Mills said he was also concerned about the stigma that has been attached to the village as property that has been on the market since the spring has yet to be sold.

"The name of Throckmorton is now synonymous with the foot-and-mouth outbreak and we'll have to suffer this stigma for many years," said Mr Mills.

But Mr Luff urged anyone with property problems to approach DEFRA.

"If there are serious problems about property, owners should talk to DEFRA instead of going to the newspapers," he said.

"If people need to move, DEFRA will look at it sympathetically.

"Mr Mills should go to liaison meetings and raise his concerns there."

The whole of Britain could be declared free of foot-and-mouth from midnight on New Year's Eve. Worcestershire and Herefordshire have already been declared free of the disease.