OPPONENTS of the National Trust's controversial decision to split up a Beatrix Potter fell farm are redoubling their efforts to get the ruling reversed, reports Jennie Dennett.

A 60-strong crowd at a Coniston Parish Council meeting this week universally condemned the break-up of High Yewdale, agreeing to rally a petition and call the trust before the council.

The farm near Coniston was left to the heritage charity by children's author Beatrix Potter on her death in 1943.

In the New Year, trust managers decided to divide High Yewdale between four neighbouring farms and to give the flock to another farmer in October, when existing tenants Jonny and Rose Birkett retire.

The trust's area manager, John Darlington, said the farm was no longer viable to rent out to a single tenant because of changes in the farm subsidy system and the split would benefit other farmers by allowing them to attract more support payments.

But Torver farmer Arnold Lancaster complained that the organisation had got its sums wrong, branding it The National Twist'.

"If Yewdale isn't viable, 95 per cent of the farms in the Lake District aren't viable."

High Yewdale neighbour Dorothy Wilkinson, of High Tilberthwaite Farm, agreed: "The trust's reasons just don't wash at all. Yes, there's going to be a big change in subsidies, but every farmer has to cope with that. High Yewdale is a viable farm and they are going totally the wrong way around it. We are not burying our heads in the sand, farms will fold, but High Yewdale is not one of them."

Resident Jeff Carroll further complained that the trust's decision was "symptomatic of the bombastic and thoughtless approach" of big organisations.

"They say they have consulted but they haven't consulted the right people."

Parish clerk Chas Sergeant warned that protests would likely fall on deaf ears but councillors agreed to endeavour to use people power' to change the trust's mind. A petition has been started in the village and protest letters will be dispatched to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Wesmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Collins.

Prof Sheila Crispin, a senior vet who was an important figure in Cumbria during the foot-and-mouth crisis, has also written a detailed letter of objection to ministers.

In it she accuses the trust of behaving without empathy towards Beatrix Potter's wishes to manage farms on the same lines she and her husband did.

National Trust communications officer Jane Watson countered that Potter was an astute business woman who herself amalgamated farms to make them more viable.

The trust would not change its decision because it was the most sensible way forward, she said.

"This wasn't a snap decision. Our view is based on lots of scientific evidence and calculations of how the farm support payments were going to go. We are not just sitting here in offices making things up."