A cheese producer forced to withdraw its products after being linked to a fatal E Coli outbreak is campaigning to put some items back on the market.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) said Errington Cheese's Dunsyre Blue was the "likely cause" of the illness, which affected 20 people and led to the death of a three-year-old child last summer.

The agency implemented a blanket ban on the sale of the South Lanarkshire firm's products in September.

The company, which disputes the evidence, was forced to lay off 12 members of staff following the ban.

It has now emerged the firm has written to South Lanarkshire Council to seek permission to put its Lanark Blue and Corra Linn products back on the market.

Company bosses said they were satisfied that the cheese was safe to eat "after extensive investigation and receipt of advice from a variety of experts".

The statement added: "We can only do so with the agreement of the council and, while we await their response, we can only hope that they consider our decision in the collaborative and constructive manner which has characterised our relationship with them for the past 20 years.

"We are delaying a decision regarding sales of Dunsyre Blue in order to give Food Standards Scotland the chance to reveal the epidemiological evidence which they claim links that cheese to the outbreak of the illness."

A public meeting "in defence of artisan food and Errington Cheese" will be held in Edinburgh next week.

Firm founder Humphrey Errington will be among the speakers at the event, which aims to highlight "threats" to Scotland's artisan food industry.

The meeting was organised by the Committee For the Defence of Artisan Food, set up in the wake of the E Coli outbreak linked to Errington Cheese last year.