A dairy farmer charged with blocking the highway at a protest against low milk prices has vowed to continue demonstrating.

Peter Parkes, 49, was yesterday given a six month conditional discharge at Lewes Magistrates Court for obstructing the entrance to a dairy processor.

Dozens of farmers filled the courtroom to hear Mr Parkes sentenced and also protested outside in his support.

Mr Parkes, of Kinnersly Manor Farm, Sidlow, near Reigate, Surrey, was arrested at Arla Foods in Sheffield Park, near Uckfield, on August 3.

Mark Kately, prosecuting, told the court that he and other farmers were blocking the narrow entrance to the dairy processors with their cars so that milk lorries could not get in or out.

Police eventually asked them to move their cars, which they did. Mr Parkes then stood in front of one of the lorries and was arrested when he refused to move.

Neil Rose, chairman of magistrates, said: "We accept that this was a lawful protest. But in this case you went one step beyond."

Mr Parkes, who was representing himself, pleaded guilty to the charge. He was ordered to pay £35 costs, which his supporters clubbed together to pay.

Outside the court he said: "Farmers are in disarray. It just can't go on like this. The supermarkets are making millions every week."

The protest outside Arla was part of a national campaign by Farmers for Action, a group which is demanding fairer milk prices and which is supported by Sussex MPs Norman Baker and Nicholas Soames.

On average, a litre of supermarket milk costs 57p. Farmers are paid an average 18p per litre by retailers or processors for their milk but the National Farmers Union estimates it costs them 22p just to produce one litre.

Over the past few months farmers have warned that the UK dairy industry could collapse unless milk prices rise.

A recent report funded by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs found that there was likely to be a one billion litre shortfall in national milk quotas by 2007.

Mr Parkes said that unless matters improved by Christmas, farmers could start dumping milk before it reached supermarkets to highlight the problem.

He said: "We're under quota all the time. We're only an island; remember that."

Thursday, October 13, 2005