FED UP farmer William Hickson believes the Government's £150million aid deal for hard-pressed hill farmers like himself is too little, too late, and is only putting off the inevitable.

William gave himself 18 months to survive the latest crisis in the beleaguered industry before Tuesday's cash aid announcement.

He admitted the package would help farmers like himself by waiving charges covering cattle "passports" and dealing with animal waste in abattoirs.

But said simply pouring money into the industry was postponing the inevitable for many farmers like himself. "It deals with the symptoms on a short-term basis but does not deal with the cause," he added.

"It has got to be good news but it's only tackling the bureaucracy the Government created in the first place. We need to look at the cause of what is happening and sort that out. Let farmers compete equally with those in other countries and we can compete with anyone in the world.

"At the moment I can't afford a new spade let alone a new tractor."

William is living on subsidies provided by the Government and Europe after prices for his sheep and cattle plummeted.

William came to 50-acre Knarrs Side Farm, off the moorland road between Colne and Skipton, from Southport five years ago. Then bull calves were going for £913 and lambs were up to £50 each at market. Now calves sell for £500 or so at best and the worse lambs are being traded for less than £20.

William blames the over-supply of beef cattle and sheep, the strong pound and the supermarket giants who he says take an ever increasing slice of any profits to be made from meat for farming's woes.

He also has strong criticism of the regime and other controls placed on British farmers to protect animals from ill treatment.

He said: "I've only 30 cows, think what it's like for someone with 200. The bureaucracy is amazing, even for simply taking cattle to a show."

William thinks it is right that animals should be looked after. After all it's in farmers' interest to make sure their animals are in top condition. "But we should have a level playing field across Europe," he argues.

His 50-acre farm produces wool, calves, lambs and finished beef, all of which have little or no value at the moment.

William estimated it cost around £40 to kill and cut up a lamb, with its individual cuts on the supermarket shelf adding up to over £100.

William says it would be better to get rid of them and allow farmers to make or break on the merits of the produce they turn out, provided everyone played to the same rules.

William said: "Farmers, if they have any money, plough it back into putting up new buildings, buying a new tractor or getting more livestock. The only time they may be rich is when they sell up."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.