Farmer Colin Rayner finally gained access to his field full of crops on Thursday - a week after a closed road cut his tractors off from them.

Former Royal Borough Mayor Mr Rayner had set off the week before with his tractors to harvest £30,000 worth of wheat and maize from his field in Langley.

But the Chequers Bridge in Hollow Hill Lane and Market Lane had been closed off for 18 months as part of a traffic experiment - and no-one had told Mr Rayner.

He soon discovered that the only alternative route had a 10.5 tonne weight ban that barred his tractors from using it as they weigh a great deal more than that.

A frantic email from Mr Rayner led to a meeting with Slough Council officers.

Finally - after a week the barriers in Langley were removed temporarily to let Mr Rayner's tractors roll in and the harvesting was able to start.

But there could still be problems ahead.

Slough Borough Council's Transport officer Masum Choudhury has warned Mr Rayner that the authority might not be able to automatically arrange for him to have access to the site in the future.

Mr Rayner has responded to him - pointing out 'we cannot leave the fields bare, we need to farm that land throughout the year, planting crops, spreading fertiliser, spraying, harvest, general crop maintenance and spreading manure.

"If we cannot carry out operations we cannot farm this land."

Mr Rayner runs Berkyn Manor Farm in Stanwell Road, Horton but his fields in Langley form an important part of his output.

Mr Rayner is no stranger to problems with roads though.

Until recently he was the councillor responsible for the upkeep of Windsor and Maidenhead's roads.