A LANDMARK scheme to compensate nursery owners who sacrificed profits to contain a deadly plant disease threatening the New Forest has had a mixed reception.

Growers in and around the area who had to destroy stock to prevent the spread of Sudden Oak Death have been offered part of a £200,000 compensation package by the government.

The disease, which killed tens of thousands of trees in Canada, could have infected parts of the New Forest if left unchecked.

Many nursery owners are delighted about the Department for environment, Food and Rural Affairs' announcement because compensation has never been paid to plant keepers before.

But others feel the sum of money that will be divided between growers nationwide is so small it won't be worthwhile.

Romsey-based grower John Middleton lost up to £60,000 worth of stock contaminated with the Phytophthora ramorum strain, dubbed Sudden Oak Death.

He said: "It's like pouring water on a drowning man - £200,000 isn't going to go anywhere. I should be paid full compensation for my crop loss."

Derf Paton, owner of Lymington's Pinetops Nurseries that wasn't affected by the disease, said: "The compensation is a good thing because it makes it more likely that a nursery that gets this disease is going to declare it."

But he added: "It's not a lot of money."

A spokeswoman for the National Farm-ers' Union said: "We welcome the fact that we've been campaigning for compensation and now the government has granted it. We felt there was an unfair burden on businesses because they weren't being compensated at all for stock being destroyed."

Minister for plant health and forestry for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Ben Bradshaw said: "Given the environmental reasons for the action being taken I believe it is right that we try to help those businesses who have been particularly affected."

SUDDEN OAK DEATH FACTS:

Phytophthora ramorum, dubbed Sudden Oak Death, is a serious fungal pathogen which can damage plants and trees.

In this country the tag Sudden Oak Death is misleading as it refers to American oaks.

In the USA it has killed tens of thousands of tanoak, coast live oak, Californian black oak and interior live oak trees.

It is not known how European trees would be affected.

One of the species thought to be most at risk in the UK is the European beech.

Susceptible trees are infected in the bark and or the leaves and shoots. In bark cases, when the infection girdles the trunk, the tree dies suddenly.

Infected plants develop a brown or black discolouration.

Containing the disease requires all infected plants, and those in a 10-metre radius, to be destroyed. While they may not be at risk of dying they could carry the fungus to more susceptible species.

Courtesy of Defra website: www.defra.gov.uk