IT WILL be 2003 before Cumbria feels the benefit of the Rural Action Zone funding promised in the wake of foot-and-mouth, according to county council leader Rex Toft.

During the crisis last year Cumbria County Council and the Foot-and-Mouth Task Force put together proposals for the county to become a Rural Action Zone to attract funding and co-ordinate efforts to help the area's economy recover from the effects of the epidemic.

The Government backed the plan in principle as early as August last year but it was only last week that a funding package was finally approved and the council placed adverts in the newspapers within the county asking for applications for chairman, chief executive and board members of the Rural Regeneration Company which will administer the RAZ millions.

Rex Toft, who chaired the Foot-and-Mouth Task Force at the height of the crisis in 2001, said: "I have no doubt that as and when we start spending the money we will start to see good results from it."

However, he told the Gazette: "It has taken far too long to get this off the ground." He blamed the Government, and Chancellor Gordon Brown in particular, for dragging their feet on funding for the scheme.

While the county has been waiting for the RAZ to come on-line, only £500,000 of the funding has been spent keeping various projects ticking over.