A Home Office decision to allow more foreign seasonal workers into the county has been welcomed by fruit farmers.

This year some crops were left to rot on the fields as farmers could not get the labour to harvest it.

Now the Government has announced that 5,000 more Eastern Europeans will be permitted to work on British farms next year.

The decision follows sustained lobbying by Faversham MP Hugh Robertson.

Hernhill farmer David Figgis, who could not pick his entire raspberry crop this year, said: “It is very important news for us. The figure is still less than it has been in the past but it is a vast improvement and we are very, very pleased.”

•For full story see this week’s Faversham News, out on Christmas Eve