FARMERS are threatening to blockade a landfill site with a 'wall of tractors' to stop it being used as a burial ground for an estimated 6,000 animal carcasses.

The threat from farmers follows Government plans to use Whitehead tip -- midway between Boothstown and Astley.

Earlier this week the plans were blocked at the 11th hour when Wigan Council launched an investigation into the proposal.

The tip is on a national list of more than 120 drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) to take pig and sheep carcasses killed in the 'firebreak' cull.

Protest

This includes animals on uninfected farms killed because they were in the exclusion zone around an infected farm.

But John Harrison, who has 75 cattle and 50 sheep at his Moss House farm at Boothstown, which borders the tip alongside Vicar's Hall Lane, said angry farmers planned to disrupt the site to protest at animals from infected areas being dumped in an uninfected area.

He said: "If they start dumping carcasses at that tip we are going to go down there with our tractors and blockade it.

"There will be around 20 of us and we will really slow things down.

"I can't understand why they want to bring animals from infected areas into clear areas?"

The Boothstown farmer added: "My cattle graze right up next to that tip and if my animals get infected every animal for a two mile radius will have to be killed as well.

"That could be as much as 2,000 animals culled in the surrounding area."

Another farmer near the tip, who asked not to be named, said farmers were anxious to keep their stock clear because they hoped, once the crisis was over, to sell animals to farmers whose stock had been culled.

A spokesman for Wigan Council confirmed: "We are taking legal advice with regard to whether dumping animals in the tip breaks planning conditions.

"Obviously we are very concerned about this." FARMERS are threatening to blockade a landfill site with a 'wall of tractors' to stop it being used as a burial ground for an estimated 6,000 animal carcasses.

The threat from farmers follows Government plans to use Whitehead tip -- midway between Boothstown and Astley.

Last week the plans were blocked at the 11th hour when Wigan Council launched an investigation into the proposal.

The tip is on a national list of more than 120 drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) to take pig and sheep carcasses killed in the 'firebreak' cull.

This includes animals on uninfected farms killed because they were in the exclusion zone around an infected farm.

But John Harrison, who has 75 cattle and 50 sheep at his Moss House farm at Boothstown, which borders the tip alongside Vicar's Hall Lane, said angry farmers planned to disrupt the site to protest at animals from infected areas being dumped in an uninfected area.

Protest

He said: "If they start dumping carcasses at that tip we are going to go down there with our tractors and blockade it.

"There will be around 20 of us and we will really slow things down.

"I can't understand why they want to bring animals from infected areas into clear areas?"

The Boothstown farmer added: "My cattle graze right up next to that tip and if my animals get infected every animal for a two mile radius will have to be killed as well.

"That could be as much as 2,000 animals culled in the surrounding area."

Another farmer near the tip, who asked not to be named, said farmers were anxious to keep their stock clear because they hoped, once the crisis was over, to sell animals to farmers whose stock had been culled.

A spokesman for Wigan Council confirmed: "We are taking legal advice with regard to whether dumping animals in the tip breaks planning conditions.

"Obviously we are very concerned about this."