“BRAINLESS” and short-sighted is how Oxfordshire farmers have described a Government proposal they should be paid to let their fields flood to protect others.

The policy idea suggested by Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee chairman Neil Parish would aim to protect towns and cities like Oxford by holding floodwater in fields.

At a meeting to review flood resilience with the Environment Agency, Mr Parish said farmers would be compensated for their loss.

But Oxfordshire farmers said the damage would be so great it would make their fields worthless.

Beef cattle farmer Brian Franklin of Kidlington said it was the latest in a long line of bad ideas by Government and the Environment Agency to manage the UK’s rivers.

Mr Franklin, 70, said: “This is an idea from a man without a brain.

“That land would be worthless if it is underwater, it gets all the germs on it, all the sewage from the rivers and you wouldn’t be able to grow grass on it.

“That piece of ground would be useless, I would have to pack up farming, so what would I do for a living?”

He added: “It’s all right them saying they’re going to pay us, but how much are they going to pay us?”

Terry Moore, who also raises cattle on his farm at Otmoor, also said flooding his fields would kill the grass and leave him with nothing to feed his cows.

He said: “The Government said they would compensate us last time we flooded in 2012 and I never saw a penny from them.

“How many forms would we have to fill in and how much compensation would we get? We’ve been lied to by these people before, I don’t agree with the policy.”

Both men accused the Government and Environment Agency of mismanaging rivers in recent decades and not spending enough on maintenance.

The new flooding policy idea was inspired by a study of the 2007 floods in Oxford which concluded that peak river flow through the city would have been reduced by several feet if levees had been removed upstream and fields along the river allowed to flood.

That study was carried out by Wallingford’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology which supported policy idea, as did the National Farmers’ Union.

But Defra spokeswoman Catherine Dreghorn stressed the idea was a long way from being Government policy.

She said the idea would be examined in the national flooding review announced by environment minister Liz Truss in December.

Ms Truss also announced a new policy at the Oxford Farming Conference on Wednesday allowing farmers to clear up to 1.5km of their own ditches from this April to help take excess rainwater, where previously they had to seek Environment Agency permission.