BLAKENEY villagers and motorists on the A48 were astonished to see trucks and diggers again appearing on the Furnace Bottom site in scenes reminding them of the height of the foot and mouth crisis.
Rumours were rife that the pyres, which caused uproar in late March because of their close proximity to village homes, might be built all over again.
However a DEFRA spokesman explained that the convoy of sealed container lorries is carting away the ash and soil from the site to landfill at Bishop's Cleeve, near Cheltenham.
"The site was considered to be a potential development area and as the pyre remains are treated as contaminated land they are being removed to avoid being a future hazard," she said.
"Not all sites are being treated in this way – every one is examined and assessed for risk. In many places where the ashes have been buried they will stay buried."
She said that at some sites – not Furnace Bottom – soil and ash was being removed where cattle of more than 30 months of age might have been burned because of the risks of BSE (Mad Cow Disease).
Ash from these sites had to be taken away and re-incinerated to make it safe.
The Review has not learned of any plans to develop the Furnace Bottom site, which is known as the Fairground Field from days when the fair called annually at Blakeney.
DEFRA – then MAFF – was criticised heavily in march for starting the pyre so close to dwellings and in a valley where smoke was trapped and could affect a school just a few hundred yards away.
Nearby areas were the first parts of the Forest to be infected in the disease outbreak.