WEST Somerset District Council has been given a pat on the back for its quick response to the foot and mouth crisis.

The authority's internal auditors, Deloitte Touche, said the council had acted quickly to help businesses affected by the outbreak by setting up a fighting fund, a marketing fund and offering rate relief.

A report for the council's overview and scrutiny meeting on Monday said the council's approach had been "pioneering".

However, the auditors felt that the authority should have asked for clearer evidence of hardship from applicants.

But, at the same time, it was acknowledged that the council's whole aim was to ensure that loans were quickly and easily accessible to local businesses.

The report said: "The validation of hardship was designed to ensure that loans were easily accessible to local businesses and, if erroneous in payment, although detrimental to the council's cashflow in the short term, they will be repaid in the longer term."

It added: "This process was established promptly to maximise the benefit to the community in allocating resources as efficiently as possible."

The auditors found that 69 applications had been made to the fighting fund and, of those, 58 had been paid out to the value of £195,084.

Of the remainder, two had been refused as they failed to meet the small business criteria, four had been withdrawn and five were still in progress.

Council leader Cllr Steven Pugsley said he was very encouraged and pleased to see that the authority had acted quickly and correctly.