DURING the next five years some £500 million was due to come flooding into the region from Europe, MEP Neena Gill told Kington, Weobley and Wyside branches of the NFU at the annual dinner in Kington.

The cash, under Objective 2 funding, was earmarked to help support rural communities and the agricultural industry they served.

She was committed to highlighting the needs of the agricultural economy and fighting for a better deal for farming communities.

"It is my full intention to assist the partner organisations in Herefordshire to ensure that the county gets its fair share of European largesse." She was keen to stress the need to fight for agriculture and the families which supported it and not to allow fears about Europe to cloud the issue. "We could be arguing about straight bananas till the sun goes down. But spurious myths about EU interference are a dangerous irrelevance. The problems farmers face are those here and now.

"Ridiculous scare stories about the threat from the EU does not help the working farming family cope with the changes which currently beset them."

Neena Gill is the EMP for Herefordshire and Worcestershire.