Owners of a Wickford chicken factory threatened with closure by EU regulations are calling on Euro-sceptic MP Teresa Gorman to fight their case.

The Billericay Tory MP has agreed to meet brothers Keith and David Killick, of Crescent Farm Fresh Poultry, to discuss their dilemma.

The company is paying £200 a week in vet bills so the business, which cuts whole chickens into fillets and quarters, conforms to existing EC meat hygiene standards.

The vet has to come in for one hour every day at a price of £40 to observe hygiene restrictions - even though there are no live animals on the premises.

Keith, 52, claims a new EC directive due to be in force by 2002, which says they must have a vet on duty at all times, would force them to close and put all 30 staff out of work.

Mr Killick, who has had the business in Fulmar Way for 25 years, said: "We agree that we have got to have EC directives but to what degree?

"Why do we have to have someone so highly qualified like a vet to make us conform to hygiene standards?

"It's like getting a brain surgeon to take a splinter out of your hand."

The new EC directive would cost Mr Killick £2,000 a week, he claims. Mr Killick said he was impressed with how quickly Mrs Gorman responded to his cry for help.

He said: "Up until now I have discussed it with the vets, the inspectors and the council but I'm just being fobbed off."

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