Punitive fuel duty rates - amounting to well over two-thirds of the price of diesel and petrol - plus the lack of broadband access are creating major problems for farmers and other people living in rural Wales, according to the Farmers' Union of Wales.

As it emerged that a North Wales filling station was this week charging 127.9p per litre for diesel, which included a massive 81.03p fuel duty, FUW president Gareth Vaughan bitterly complained: "Rural dwellers are being ripped off by such huge fuel costs."

According to the AA, this month's average prices in Wales are 118.7p for a litre of diesel (75.20p fuel duty) and 115.8p for a litre of unleaded petrol (74.69p duty).

"But because of a lack of public transport in many rural areas of Wales farmers, other business people and individuals have no alternative other than to use their own vehicles," said Mr Vaughan.

He revealed the views of the union's 12 county branches were included in its response to the Welsh Office's "Rural Economy Project" consultation which also listed other problems for Welsh farmers such as proposed increased Meat Hygiene Service inspection charges and the serious impact recent Post Office closures have had for individuals and businesses in rural areas.

In a letter to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Wales David Jones MP, the FUW stressed many rural businesses already pay far higher tax levels than their competitors and called for a tax rebate for rural dwellers.

The union pointed out that 4x4 vehicles were a necessity for many individuals and businesses in rural areas due to a range of factors, including the poor standards of access to houses and business premises in rural areas, and the prioritisation of major trunk roads by Local Authorities during adverse weather conditions.

"The current vehicle taxation system means 4x4 owners pay far higher vehicle tax rates than owners of normal vehicles. Yet the system takes no account of the fact that those who own such vehicles do so out of necessity rather than choice.

"Nor does the system take into account the fact that 4x4 owners already pay higher taxes because the level of duty paid on fuel is directly proportionate to the amount of fuel used."

On meat hygiene inspection charges, the union stressed the introduction of a new time-based charging regime will mean a significant rise in the costs of running slaughterhouses, particularly for small and medium sized slaughterhouses.

"Such slaughterhouses provide important local services for farmers and the public, ensuring that animals and meat are not transported over large distances, and that niche and value added markets can be accessed."

With an increase in inspection charges, many slaughterhouses are likely to find it economically unviable to continue operating. "Closures would mean the loss of local businesses which rely on selling locally produced and processed food."

The union pointed out that almost a fifth of houses are further than five kilometres from a BT exchange and broadband cannot be accessed.

"Within rural areas, this figure is much higher and it has been estimated that in areas such as Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Flintshire more than 40% of all households are unable to access broadband at speeds greater than 2Mbps.

"While the Welsh Assembly Government's Broadband Support Scheme is naturally welcome, it is believed that Westminster Government should also take steps to encourage and accelerate the roll-out of broadband in rural areas.

"The Inland Revenue now requires all tax returns to be filed on line, while a number of other government agencies, such as British Cattle Movement Services, are moving towards internet, rather than paper-based services.

"While the reasoning behind such moves is apparent, no account is taken of the lack of access to online services in rural areas where broadband is not available. Paper alternatives to online submissions of information should be available to all those for whom internet access is not an option."

Since the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) took control over the Wales Tourist Board there has been less involvement with the farm tourism sector, the Farmers' Union of Wales has told AMs.

Responding to the Assembly's rural development committee inquiry into rural tourism, the union revealed that its members believed that there was less engagement on tourism issues since the merger of the board into the WAG.

"Our farm diversification committee enjoyed a close working relationship with the Wales Tourist Board and was actively involved with consultations on tourism-related strategies," said committee chairman Deilwen Breese. "However many of the existing strategies and action plans have not been reviewed since the merger.

"Farming creates and maintains the landscape which visitors enjoy and also produces the food which can boost their enjoyment of the countryside but the introduction of the Single Investment Fund (SIF) - part of the range of support offered through the WAG's Flexible Support for Business programme - had created a great deal of confusion within the industry.

"Farmers complain of a lack of information and guidance about the fund which they claim is complicated and bureaucratic to apply for, particularly by small businesses," Mrs Breese added.

"Many farm-based rural tourism businesses are usually run as part of the family business which does not necessarily create new jobs but does keep existing family members on the farm. This sort of job security is as important as job creation when weighing up potential grant bids.

"Farm tourism operators fear that priority is being given to promoting facilities around urban areas and while events like the Ryder Cup will attract media attention and public investment, they are not convinced they will benefit from these initiatives.

"The FUW calls for closer involvement with the Assembly Government as a first step in improving support for rural tourism. It also believes that existing strategies need to be revisited and reviewed to ensure that they remain fit for purpose."

The Farmers' Union of Wales has welcomed the launch by Assembly Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones of a consultation on taking forward plans to cull badgers in north Pembrokeshire to control bovine TB.

FUW's bTB spokesman Brian Walters said: "The scientific evidence shows conclusively that badgers are a major source of TB infection in cattle, and trials in both England and Ireland have led to significant drops in the number of cattle slaughtered due to this disease."

Earlier this year a scientific paper on badgers and cattle published in Statistical Communications in Infectious Diseases concluded that "TB in cattle herds could be substantially reduced, possibly even eliminated, in the absence of transmission from badgers to cattle".

"This is exactly the experience in Scotland, an area where there are relatively few badgers and those which do exist are free from bTB," said Mr Walters.

"Normal bTB testing of Scottish cattle has led to a reduction in disease incidences to the point where they have now achieved official bTB free status. In Wales, the same testing is not working because cattle are being constantly re-infected by badgers.

"Today's announcement is an important step towards addressing the epidemic in north Pembrokeshire, which has cost the lives of thousands of cattle in that area alone over the past couple of years, and causes overwhelming suffering and trauma for animals and families."

The announcement comes two months after the Badger Trust put a stop to previous plans to cull badgers in the areas following a case in the Court of Appeal.

"The appeal court ruling came as a major blow and has set disease control in Wales back significantly," Mr Walters said. "It is now important that we move on with a decision which does not fall foul of the legal loopholes taken advantage of by the Badger Trust in the previous court case."

The announcement follows the release of research by the FUW in July which suggested that a badger cull could reduce bTB incidences significantly.

"Our work shows that a badger cull carried out in the same way as during the English trials could reduce bTB incidences by between ten and thirty per cent during a five year culling period, and between twenty-five and thirty-two per cent in the three-and-a-half years after a cull," said Mr Walters.

"If a cull in north Pembrokeshire was carried out in a way that avoided the problems encountered during the English culling trials, these figures could be expected to be considerably higher.

"Ultimately, the best solution would be to vaccinate badgers with an oral vaccine, but we are many years away from having a tried and tested method of doing this.

"Some of those who oppose a cull say that catching and injecting badgers with a vaccine is the practical way forward, but this option was on the table thirty years ago and was laughed out of the room as being costly, impractical, and ineffective. I can't see that anything has changed."

The Farmers' Union of Wales today expressed disappointment at Assembly Rural Affairs Minister Elin Jones' decision not to set up a new Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) and committees for Wales.

The union recently contributed to the Minister's request for views on the implications to Wales of Defra's proposals to abolish the current AWB for England and Wales and its committees.

"We are extremely disappointed by her response because the FUW has always supported the AWB and remains concerned that unless there are systems in place to protect payments to agricultural workers, the industry will not attract the highly skilled technicians it needs to thrive," said the union's deputy director of agricultural policy Rhian Nowell-Phillips.

In representations to the Minister the Union highlighted its policy that it still considered the AWB to be the most effective body to determine the pay and conditions of service which reflect the unique requirements of the agricultural industry in Wales.

"As many farms in Wales run with relatively few staff, the AWB is considered an important means of avoiding potential conflict and lengthy negotiations with individual staff," Miss Nowell-Phillips stated.

The FUW strongly believes the AWB's role in setting minimum rates of pay can reflect the need for agricultural workers to be flexible in their working arrangements to cover busy periods, fine weather, and unsocial hours, which are not covered by general employment law provision.

"The Union maintains that the future of the agricultural industry is dependent on attracting highly trained technicians into the industry," Miss Nowell-Phillips added.

"The economic climate within the agricultural industry has made it a less attractive option for young people and, therefore, in the Union's view, rewarding skills, qualifications, and levels of responsibility, is a vital means of persuading high calibre people to remain in or enter the industry.

"Reliance on a single national minimum wage will inevitably result in an erosion of talent and skills from farming as more lucrative and physically less challenging professions are taken up.

"The Union believes that there needs to be arrangements put in place, to deal with enhanced terms and conditions which reflect the dedication of agricultural workers."

But in a reply to the FUW the Minister stated that in reaching her decision she had considered the additional financial costs of establishing a new AWB and committees for Wales.

"Given the ongoing budgetary pressures facing the Welsh Assembly Government, the additional not insignificant costs could simply not be justified," she added.

Commenting on the Minister's response, Miss Nowell-Phillips said: "Whilst it is a disappointing decision we will be looking for some sort of system to be established so that the principles of the AWB are continued."

In a warm personal tribute following the death at 75 of Lord Livsey, Farmers' Union of Wales president Gareth Vaughan today described the Liberal Democrat peer as a "good friend" to agriculture in the House of Lords.

"When we had an issue it was very easy to pick up the phone to Lord Livsey," said Mr Vaughan. "It is so important for us to have people in authority who understand the ways of the countryside.

"That is not the case in many quarters, but that certainly couldn't be said of Lord Livsey, who was well versed in the ways of the agricultural industry.

"Apart from that, he was a very, very popular man and politician, and not just with his own party but across the political spectrum."

Following the death of fellow party stalwart, FUW life member Lord Geraint of Ponterwyd, Lord Livsey took over the hosting of the union's annual "Farmhouse Breakfast Week" function in the Lords and three years ago he received the FUW-Barclays Bank plc award for outstanding service to Welsh agriculture.

It was Richard Livsey's contribution to Welsh agriculture at the former Welsh Agricultural College (WAC) in Aberystwyth which caught the attention of the FUW.

Mr Vaughan said that when Mr Livsey was appointed senior lecturer in farm management and then farm manager at WAC during 1971, there were only 30 or so students at the college studying OND/HND, housed in temporary buildings.

"But when he left the college in 1985, after being elected MP for Brecon and Radnor, there were approximately 300 students there."

The Welsh Assembly Government's head of CAP reform David Morris will be the main speaker at a meeting about the Glastir agri-environment scheme, organised by the Farmers' Union of Wales Meironnydd county branch, to be held at Rhydymain Village Hall, near Dolgellau, on Wednesday evening September 22 at 8pm.

Mr Morris has taken a leading role in introducing the scheme throughout Wales and the meeting will be an opportunity for farmers to finally decide if they wish to enter the scheme this year. Application forms will be sent out early next month to those who have expressed an interest and the closing date for them to be returned is November 22.

Further details about the meeting can be obtained by contacting Meirionnydd FUW County Office at Dolgellau 01341 422298.