The crews of five fishing boats based in Hastings have had their hopes of leaving the struggling industry dashed by the Government.

Six trawlermen applied to take part in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' (Defra) decommissioning scheme for vessels of ten metres or longer.

However, the scheme - which is designed to tackle the problem of too many boats chasing too few fish - was hugely oversubscribed.

Today ministers announced that only one of the Hastings bids had been successful.

The bidder, who has not been named, will now be handed a share of £6 million to break up his boat and hand back fishing licenses.

It leaves 41 fishing vessels of ten metres or more in Hastings port.

Nationally, only 30 bids have been successful. Some 162 had applied.

Defra said the bids had been decided on a strict "value for money" basis.

A spokesman said there was no regional weighting system, simply that those who asked for the least cash per "gross tonne" were a lot more likely to be successful.