Outdoor centre is facing closure

Worcestershire Council is due to close the centre in March 2008

An outdoor education centre in Gwynedd owned by Worcestershire Council faces closure in an attempt to save money.

A campaign has been launched to save the Llanrug centre, which has been visited by thousands of pupils.

A 10 Downing Street online petition has been started calling for a re-think on closure, which would affect 15 jobs.

The council said it faced "difficult choices" to save £25m from its budget over three years, and the Llanrug subsidy was an annual £600,000.

There are dozens of outdoor centres owned by councils from England in and around Snowdonia.

In March the London Borough of Hillingdon decided to close a centre it owns in Cwm Pennant near Porthmadog.

It gives the children a chance to experience something in the wild Mark Ewins, teacher

Llanrug, which opened in 1970, is expected to close next March.

"The decision to close the centre was met with disbelief by the 50 protesters who went to the council meeting to campaign against the closure," said Carole Lynes, its housekeeper for 25 years.

Teacher Mark Ewins, from Fairfield High School in West Herefordshire, has taken more than 800 pupils to the centre over the past 20 years.

'Not man-made'

"I was horrified when I heard, and spent the week we were there in disbelief that the council were going to close the place.

"It gives the children a chance to experience something in the wild, something not man-made."

Local butcher Bryn Williams said: "They are good customers of ours. It is a pity if they close the centre as they support many local businesses."

Worcestershire Council said closure was part of a "raft" of measures to save money.

Councillor Liz Eyre, Worcestershire's cabinet member for children and young people, said: "There are difficult choices here.

"The government only gives us so much funding and the cabinet members had to consider the risks around supporting all the centres, and the professional advice indicated that the authority would be over-extending itself.

"However this decision is not all doom and gloom.

"There will continue to be learning outside the classroom because money from the sale of Llanrug will be reinvested in our two other centres at West Malvern and Upton Warren."