A FARMER with the biggest cattle herd in Lancashire has been banned from having a worker living on his farm -- because it's not big enough.

Now Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans has called on planning bosses to reconsider the farmer's case after his application was rejected.

Ribble Valley Council's planning and development committee heard that Whalley farmer Jack Wearden worked over 100 hours a week and had not had a holiday in his life.

But they turned down his plan to build a house at his farm so that his son could come and work for him on advice from Lancashire County Council's Rural Estates Office.

Refusal hinged on a "functional test" set down by the Government regarding how farms can establish a need for an agricultural worker.

It is believed the test hinges on the number of cattle close to the farm.

Jack, who is considering appealing against the council decision, keeps 620 Belgian Blues on land dotted throughout East Lancashire, but very few of them at his small farmstead in Whalley.

His wife, Jean, lost her sight 11 years ago after the onset of diabetes and is now unable to help him on the farm. The 61-year-old farmer, of Shaw House Farm, said he could no longer manage the workload and needed his son to help out.

"I have the biggest herd of sucklers in Lancashire scattered across 1,186 acres. I have to use what land I can and my herds are spread out geographically," he explained.

"There's only me to calve and I just can't manage any more. I can't understand why they're saying there's not enough work to warrant an agricultural worker." He said he wanted to convert a barn at the farm into a house for his 36-year-old son, Jeff, who works on a farm in Clitheroe.

And he claims to have lost 37 calves during the winter, when he could not be present during complicated deliveries, because he was calving elsewhere. Ribble Valley Council planning committee chairman Richard Sherras said: "These situations are difficult, because of the personal circumstances involved, but we have strict guidelines about building in the open countryside."

Planning officer Colin Sharpe said: "We are certainly influenced by the recommendation of the Rural Estates Office, which is the expert on agricultural matters, and we are being very restrictive on dwellings in the open countryside."

Mr Evans added: "I do hope that the Rural Estates Office will look at this again, as this farmer quite clearly needs support. Some flexibility is clearly called for in this case."

A spokesman at the Rural Estates Office said: "The criteria is based on Government criteria and we do not discuss individual functional tests with anyone other than the individuals concerned."