Research lab closures to go ahead

The scientific community has heavily criticised the plans

Controversial plans to close four global warming research centres and cut scores of jobs have won approval.

The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) sites at Dorset, Oxford, Monk's Wood in Cambridgeshire and Banchory, in Aberdeenshire, will shut.

Managers at the Natural Environment Research Councilsay they will cut 160 jobs instead of the 200 proposed.

Union Prospect said the decision was "tantamount to disarming the UK in the battle against global warming".

Future secured

Staff at the centre - which offers independent advice on a range of environmental issues, including climate change - will now be based at four sites at Bangor, Edinburgh, Lancaster and Wallingford, Oxfordshire.

Its headquarters will move from Swindon to Wallingford.

A spokesman said the restructuring was essential "if the long-term scientific and financial sustainability of the CEH is to be secured".

He added: "By focusing CEH activities at four sites, significant savings will be made overall in running and maintenance costs so that more funding will be available for science.

"It is anticipated that the restructuring will cost about £43m, will take four years and reduce CEH's operating costs by over £7m per year.

"This leaves about £5m per year to invest in high-quality science across Nerc's priority areas."

'Crumbling infrastructure'

The scientists' union Prospect said the cuts and closures would "amount to a loss of crucial information on biodiversity and tangible evidence of climate change".

Tony Bell, the union's national secretary, said: "We recognise that Nerc have provided additional funding to try to secure some of the long-term monitoring projects undertaken by CEH; but after years of under-investment, this will all be absorbed in maintaining the crumbling infrastructure.

"At this stage, it may provide a reprieve for just 40 of the 200 staff under threat but the unique workload of each CEH scientist means the loss of one individual may denude the centre from an entire area of specialist knowledge."

The UK's academy of science, the Royal Society, said: "It is unclear from the statement what these plans actually mean for CEH's work, particularly in the area of predicting the impacts of climate change.

"While, on the one hand, we are told that the work on predicting the impacts of climate change on biodiversity is to be preserved, on the other, work on the prediction of climate change impacts is identified as an area where CEH is planning to do less.

"Despite the welcome concession shown in saving 40 of the 200 threatened staff posts, we remain concerned about how these programmes can be sustained in view of the reduction of staff outlined in Nerc's plans."