The National Environmental Research Council has confirmed four leading wildlife and climate change research centres will definitely close despite widespread opposition.
It said the closures were needed to reduce the running costs of its centre for ecology and hydrology, which are scattered over nine sites.
The four that will shut over the next four years are Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire and sites in Oxford, Winfrith, in Dorset, and Banchory, near Aberdeen.
References: The Guardian 14/03/06 page 5
