DEAD animals could litter New Forest roads for days on end because of new European red tape, it is feared.

Ponies and cattle killed in road accidents could be left by the road for up to four days at a time because the incinerator currently used to dispose of carcasses does not meet new European Union standards.

Brussels bureaucrats have ruled that the emissions being released from the incinerator are too harmful for the environment.

Carcasses would only be removed on two days a week under the proposed scheme.

New Forest Tory MP Julian Lewis said: "This is another fine Euro mess the government has got us into."

In order to bring the ailing furnace up to standard, the hunt kennels, responsible for collection and destruction of fallen stock, must purchase a new part.

But the manufacturers are unable to supply the part until five months after the new EU regulation takes effect in January 2005.

Representatives of the Hunt Kennels and the CDA have asked the Department for Environ-ment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to allow use of the incinerator, based at the Hunt Kennels near Lyndhurst, until the part becomes available in May next year.

But if the government rules against the plea the Hunt Kennels will be forced to temporarily abandon their fallen stock collection duties.

Instead, Commoners would be forced to sign up to a costly national collection scheme, which would only visit the Forest twice a week, according to Richard Manley, chairman of New Forest Commoners' Defence Association.

He said: "I think Defra have got to allow us to continue using the incinerator. The commoning economy is so fragile at the moment.

"Otherwise, the reality is we're going to have a fallen stock service which only works twice a week. There's going to be items of fallen stock left on the Forest potentially for up to four days.

"I find it farcical. When you look at the exhaust emissions that come out of the thousands of cars and they're worried about some toxins coming out of the incinerator because people are trying to do what's best for the Forest."

Dr Lewis, MP for New Forest East, said: "Typically, while other European countries treat regulations of this sort with a barrel full of salt, Britain feels that we have to implement to the last detail and comma. Guess who pays the price?"