Selby'S bid for a £1 billion science centre was given a major boost today when it was revealed that developers are negotiating to buy the 500-acre site at Burn airfield.

The Evening Press has learned that regional development agency Yorkshire Forward is trying to tie up a multi-million-pound deal with landowners Innergy, formerly National Power.

If the negotiations are successful, the odds in favour of Burn being the preferred site would narrow considerably.

One of the rival German bidders for the project has already dropped out. It also emerged today that one of the proposed Swedish sites is having problems because of its conservation area status.

This leaves four sites in the running - Burn, Oxford, another German site in Saxony, and one in Lund, Sweden.

The ground-breaking project, which will create thousands of jobs, will be one of the world's major centres for the study of chemistry, physics, biology, materials and earth and engineering sciences.

Selby District Council's economy board chairman Roy Wilson said he was even more optimistic that Burn would be given the nod after the revelation that Yorkshire Forward was negotiating to buy the airfield outright.

He said: "Yorkshire Forward must be fairly confident about the outcome and, provided we get Government backing, then Burn looks ever increasingly like a very serious contender.

"This is an extremely prestigious project that would enhance Selby's economic prospects immeasurably."

A Yorkshire Forward spokesman declined to comment on the negotiations to buy the site.

He said: "It's a project we are very much pursuing and supporting and see great potential in."

The other partner in the Yorkshire bid is the White Rose Consortium (WRC), involving the universities of York, Leeds and Sheffield.

A WRC spokesman today praised the latest moves by Yorkshire Forward.

He said: "If negotiations to buy the Burn site are successful, it will mean we have a potential home for the science park, which should put us ahead of the game."

Burn Parish Council chairman Gordon Holmes said: "This news is certainly a major step forward from the developers' point of view, but residents are still concerned about the park's impact on the village.

"We're still very much in the dark and a lot of issues have yet to be addressed."

Updated: 15:36 Wednesday, March 05, 2003