The Government was urged today to move almost 140 jobs to a Ministry of Agriculture "super lab" near York as a row blew up over claims it has wasted millions of pounds of taxpayers' money.

Ryedale MP John Greenway said the Government should end controversy surrounding the Ministry of Agriculture's Central Science Laboratory at Sand Hutton by closing its satellite arm at Norwich and transferring the 137 jobs to North Yorkshire.

He says his calls have been backed by politicians, scientists and academics in York, who want to the see the state-of-the-art food science centre running to its full capacity.

Norwich South Labour MP Charles Clarke has been running a battle of attrition to keep the Norfolk lab open, asking scores of Parliamentary Questions about the economic costs of Sand Hutton. He claims the Sand Hutton lab was budgeted at £63 million, but actually cost £134 million to build and is currently valued at £88 million - making it a loss to the tax payer of £46 million.

And he claims while research income generated by scientists at both establishments is broadly the same, Sand Hutton overheads per scientist are two-an-a-half times as much as counterparts in Norwich.

The MP claims the runaway costs of Sand Hutton are the reasons for the Ministry of Agriculture's desire to close Norwich.

In a letter to Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham, Mr Clarke says, "It is this crisis for the CSL, resulting entirely from the decision to build the Sand Hutton laboratory, which had led to the Permanent Secretary' recommendation to close the Norwich laboratory." A decision is likely in the next 10 days.

But Mr Greenway today dismissed these allegations, saying Sand Hutton was built with the clear aim of closing satellite labs like Norwich and creating one, world-beating, super research centre.

He said: "What would be a scandal would be if the Government now changed its mind because of fear it would be an unpopular move with the electorate in Norwich. The decision to close Norwich and move everything to York was an integral part of the decision to build Sand Hutton in the first place."

He added: "The accusations about Sand Hutton are a nonsense and we have been lobbying and sending letters to ministers saying precisely the opposite."

He said the original budget bust as the project developed and turned into a world-beating centre with the latest technology.

He added: "What we have at Sand Hutton is the best lab of its kind in Europe."

He added: "We are waiting for ministers to grasp the nettle and make the decision that Norwich has to close."

The CSL is an executive agency of the MAFF with the aim of providing scientific advice and support, backed by high-quality research, to the ministry to safeguard the food supply, protect the consumer and the environment and control agricultural pests and diseases.

The lab at Sand Hutton was officially opened by Dr Cunningham last October, although staff began working there in 1996.

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