A BUTTERFLY charity has criticised plans to close a Dorset wildlife research centre.

Last week the Natural Environmental Research Council revealed it would be shutting the Dorset Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) at Winfrith.

Up to 52 scientists and 14 technical administrative staff at the centre face the axe in the cost-cutting proposals.

The details are not yet finalised but a spokesman for centre said some staff from Winfrith might move to Wallingford, Oxfordshire, to continue with their work.

A further centre in Monks Wood in Cambridgeshire and two other out-of-county centres also face closure.

Butterfly Conservation chief executive Martin Warren said: "The world is facing a crisis. Species are being lost at unprecedented rate. These two centres play a vital role in reversing that. Everything must be done to save them."

Mr Warren said the Winfrith centre was responsible for helping to restore numbers of the endangered Large Blue Butterfly.

He said: "This is deeply worrying. Winfrith and Monkswood are internationally renowned research stations.

"Life in the Undergrowth, presented by Butterfly Conservation president Sir David Attenborough on BBC1 this week, has demonstrated to millions just how vital butterflies and other insects are in the overall biodiversity pattern of things.

"The Government says it is committed to halting biodiversity loss. To do that you need the fundamental research carried out by these stations."

Mr Warren added that staff in Winfrith were responsible for alerting the world to the fact that butterflies are declining faster than plants or birds and that they could soon be extinct.

This week South Dorset MP Jim Kight revealed he would be fighting to keep the centre open.

He said: "Our area offers the most biodiverse environment in the whole of the UK.

"To move expertise in the field away from this environment needs to be questioned."

Mr Knight plans to meet with DEFRA, the Environment Agency and science minister Lord Sainsbury - and suggests the Dorset centre remains open.

He said: "Time and money has been spent on special study sites such as Dorset Heathlands and the large blue butterfly. There are excellent reasons for keeping the site running."