Farmers in Oxfordshire are turning to tourism to cope with the downturn in their industry.

Local planners have shown their support by allowing them to convert redundant barns and outbuildings into holiday lets.

In west Oxfordshire three separate schemes were given the go-ahead when they came up before the district council's uplands planning sub-committee this week.

Derrick Millard, vice-chairman, said: "Farmers are being encouraged to diversify and I don't think any of us have a problem with developments like this if they bring in tourists to the area.

"But we have to be careful that what starts out as holiday lets do not end up as permanent homes in the country."

Many farms in west Oxfordshire lie within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Andrew Tucker, director of planning and leisure, told councillors: "The Oxfordshire Structure Plan recognises the need to address the changes and the continuing need for farm diversification to maintain the health of the rural economy."

Isobel Bretherton, south east regional spokesman for the National Farmers' Union, said farmers were being encouraged by the Government to diversify.

She added: "Farmers are desperate nine out of ten are in the red and are looking at every asset they have to provide a bit of an earner."