The brains behind the Westcountry’s Buy Local campaign have admitted the success of the initiative has overwhelmed them.

Dozens of shops and almost 100 restaurants have joined the Western Morning News-led push to get local firms to use local produce and expertise.

It is a bid to get the region back on track after the devastation of the foot and mouth crisis.

Top chefs, politicians and business leaders are giving their backing, spurred on by the WMN.

Editor Barrie Williams said the first anniversary of the start of the epidemic was looming – but times were changing.

He said: “While this newspaper is determined not to rest in our efforts to force a full public inquiry so that the whole truth of the outbreak and its subsequent handling can be brought out into the open and be questioned, it is time now, in many respects, to move on.

“For while our memories of the anguish and devastation of 2001 will never fade, the essential recovery can begin now.

“And that was precisely the spur behind the launch of our “buy local” campaign.”

Jeremy Pope, of the South West Regional Development Agency, and South West NFU representative Ian Johnson said they were thrilled with the support already received.

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