MORE than 30 jobs will go at a long-standing Horticultural Research International (HRI) station near Lymington when it closes in October.

The axe has been poised over the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) centre at Efford - a internationally-acclaimed facility since the 1950s - for the past year, and Secretary of State Margaret Beckett MP has now confirmed it will go.

Staff had expected any possible closure would not happen until next April, but site manager Ray Tucker said the 34 jobs, including gardening workers and secretarial employees, would end in the autumn.

Recent efforts to bring new experimental work to the site have failed to prevent the closure, and Mr Tucker added: "I am hugely disappointed, because we have worked very hard to develop things. It is also an early closure, which was unexpected."

Efford was originally established by the government over 150 acres off the A337 in 1951, and rapidly became a pioneering operation in solving the problems of the horticultural industry, providing benefits to growers across the UK and beyond.

Now comprising 200 acres, including state-of-the-art, computer-controlled glass houses and poly-tunnels, recent work has focused on issues surrounding energy conservation, composting and water. A new £1.6 million laboratory/office block was opened as recently as 1999.

But financial support from the industry has dwindled, and a DEFRA review recommended Efford's closure, while two other HRI stations remain open and merge with the University of Warwick to survive.

Praising staff for their patience and resilience during the uncertainties of recent months, HRI chief executive Prof Michael Wilson said: "It is with great regret that the decision to close Efford had to be made.

"Although the review team recommended the Efford should close, DEFRA and HRI have carefully considered the recommendations alongside other options, before arriving at the same conclusion."