The Citizen is adding its weight to the calls for a public inquiry into foot and mouth disease.

The county itself is now officially clear of the disease for the first time in six months.

But the effects on local business and farming have been devastating.Gloucestershire was the sixth most badly affected county and The Citizen is urging readers to add their names to a petition printed in the paper and send it in to the Campaign for the Truth, spearheaded by Lady Apsley.

The paper said in a front page editorial: “Farming and tourism industries alike have been devastated by the consequences of the worst outbreak of the disease in living memory.

“And one question remains to be answered. How on earth did it all happen the way it did?

“It is a question this newspaper has been asking for months. And yet there is a growing fear that the process set up by the Government to investigate the outbreak will not provide the complete answer.

“That is why The Citizen is joining forces with other leading regional newspapers and countryside magazines to demand nothing less than a full public inquiry.”