A FARMER has made an urgent plea for hay after his farm was swamped in diesel from an RAF base last night. 

Rob Rhodes, from Time Out Farm in West Oxfordshire, said personnel from Brize Norton are still on his farm this morning pumping away and clearing up oil that spilled onto his land.

He described the desperate dash through the fields in the middle of the night to rescue the animals with a 'younger gentleman' from the RAF base lending a hand.

But when he moved the 30 or so horses into a spare field they 'had a whale of a time' and completely destroyed his bales of hay. 

Mr Rhodes said: "We've got quite a bit of diesel here, it's all multicolours. 

"It's just a fraction of the field that is contaminated. There are no animals there now and they weren't injured. 

"They [RAF personell] are doing the best they can.

"We had a gentleman running across the fields with me last night moving the animals. He's much fitter than me and was able to run and shut all of the gates.

"The only thing that would be useful is if people have some spare hay. 

"Where we had to move the horses, there's about 30 of them, was where we kept the hay and they've had a whale of a time. 

"It's not just the oil spill we've got a lot of water here too, but the RAF said they would pump it out too.

"They've got it under control.

"They don't know how it happened but they said it wasn't deliberate." 

To get in touch with Mr Rhodes contact the Time Out Farm West Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary on social media or by calling 07850 489 695.

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