A BRANSFORD guesthouse owner has accused the Government of failing to honour its promise to help people providing accommodation recover from the foot and mouth crisis.

Brian Porter, who runs Croft Guest House with his wife Ann, said he made inquires about the Advantage West Midlands grants of between £2,500 and £5,000 which are supposed to help B&B businesses.

But he found that although he and his wife are financially reliant on the guesthouse, their five bedrooms meant they did not fit the criteria, along with 95 per cent of accommodation providers in the Malvern area.

To be eligible for a portion of the £1.4 million funding, they must have between six and 20 bedrooms and have suffered a loss in business of 20 per cent.

Mr Porter said: "Help is not being given where it's needed most. The small rural guesthouses and B&Bs were very badly hit by the epidemic and there now appears little chance of them being helped at all.

"We're struggling to recover from last year's loss. It was absolutely diabolical from February when foot and mouth started and we're only just starting to recover now.

"Advantage West Midlands claims to be protecting jobs with its criteria but where is the difference between a five-bedroom establishment and one with six?"

Carol Morris, proprietor of the two-bed Hills Reach in Upper Welland, agreed that most local B&Bs tended to have three or four rooms, which, while small, are essential in an area low on accommodation provision.

She said: "The criteria must wipe out so many people. I was disappointed when I read it.

"For the first three months after foot and mouth hit last year I did one night's bed and breakfast. Then it started to pick up, but we certainly didn't make up what we lost and it was very, very gradual.

"It hit me even harder because I finished work last year to concentrate on bed and breakfast, so my income was completely wiped out."

Jennifer Slaughter, of the Walls Hill Guest House in Ledbury, said they had been less badly hit by foot and mouth because of the attraction of her husband's cooking. However, she felt that guesthouses of all sizes, if they made a significant loss, should be able to apply for help.

She said: "The figures are going to be the telling point. Everybody has accounts and if you show a shortfall help should be available, even if it's under six bedrooms."

A spokesman for Advantage West Midlands said it had been forced to draw up strict criteria giving funding to those most affected by foot and mouth, where it would have the most positive impact.

He said it was difficult to justify to people who failed to meet the criteria but that Mr and Mrs Porter had been sent a detailed response to concerns about how funding was handed out.