A BOSBURY farmer who keeps a dairy herd on trust land is considering complaining to the Charity Commission because he believes Herefordshire Council is not doing enough to fill its farming tenancies with ex-servicemen and women.

John Barron, a former RAF flight lieutenant, also believes the council, which administers The Buchanan Trust land at North Bosbury, has given him an insufficient milk quota, which means he could face bankruptcy.

"I have a very strong case for unfair treatment," he said. "I'm going to complain to the Charity Commission. I'm a true beneficiary of the trust, one of only two ex-servicemen on the trust's eight farms and the farm is desperately underfunded for its milk quota.

"I'm an ex-servicemen and in great difficulties because of the management style.

"I've been in West Belfast, I've had rocks flung at me and seen colleagues shot. I've served my country and the farm is my reward, for which I'm very grateful, but without more milk quotas I can't have enough cows to pay the rent."

Mr Barron was a lieutenant and a platoon commander with the Royal Highland Fusiliers in Northern Ireland in 1983. He now suffers from high frequency deafness, which he puts down to the effects of gunfire. He left the army in 1984 for a career with the RAF.

Herefordshire councillor Stuart Thomas, chairman of the small holdings selection panel, said that although the Buchanan Trust was set up in 1919 to originally help ex-servicemen into farming, there were no longer legal requirements to keep it that way.

But he said: "We will make sure that the spirit of the trust is observed by us advertising for military people first, for Buchanan vacancies."

As landlord, Herefordshire Council could also buy in extra milk quotas for Mr Barron, and the farmer has held talks with council representatives to discuss problems.

Mr Barron has 50 cows and a milk quota of 185,000 litres. He would like 80 cows on his 103 acres and produce 500,000 litres a year.

The cost of upping his milk quota could cost the trust as much as £40,000 a year.

Mr Barron, who took on Beacon Hill Farm in 1997, said he had spend £35,000 of his own funds on buying in extra milk quotas, but he added: "I'm on the verge of going bankrupt. I've used up all my reserves leasing milk quotas over the past five years."

Herefordshire Council says it is developing a new framework to develop council smallholdings and the Buchanan Trust and will meet with tenants in October.

Coun Thomas added: "All diary farmers are under the cosh but that doesn't give me the right to dole out trust or public money because I feel sorry for someone."