PROJECT leaders working to establish a new £7.5million study centre in or near Lyme Regis have been accused of trying to ‘justify the unjustifiable’.

Lyme Regis Development Trust (LRDT) has secured an ‘in principle’ agreement with the Natural History Museum (NHM) and the Field Studies Council to locate the Jurassic Coast Study Centre in the area.

The project leaders are preparing to meet next week with East Devon District Council to discuss a proposal to build the centre at a site in East Devon, close to the boundary with Lyme.

But the owners of an existing field study centre in Lyme Regis fear the move would put them out of business and threaten more than 20 jobs.

Woodberry Down, in Colway Lane, has been run as an activities and field studies centre for 43 years, and current owners Geoff Lloyd and his family took over 12 years ago.

Mr Lloyd said: “We can understand the Lyme Regis Development Trust wishing to play down our 43-year-old commitment to field studies, in order to justify the unjustifiable – their brand new £7.5million edifice in East Devon.

“Our fear is that a LRDT field study centre, like most local authority-run educational establishments, will be subsidised to enable it to undercut privately owned competition, not only a privately owned field study centre like ourselves, but other providers of accommodation in Lyme Regis.”

He added: “From where I stand, there is no room for two field study centres – it’s damn difficult to survive in this recession as it is.”

Woodberry Down runs programmes on subjects including geology, biology, and agriculture, catering for GCSE and A-Level students, universities, and adult groups.

The 220-bed residential facility employs more than 20 people during term time.

Marcus Dixon, chief executive of Lyme Regis Development Trust, said the new centre would have 120 beds and create 28 jobs.

Mr Lloyd said: “As far as I can see, they are talking about doing the same thing. They say they are going to employ God knows how many people and if they do that, we won’t be able to compete.”

The trust is working with the NHM, which ran pilot courses in Lyme Regis earlier this year to test the market.

Mr Lloyd said: “To save such unwarranted expenditure we have offered the Natural History Museum the opportunity to use our existing lecture rooms and accommodation.”

In a letter to Mr Lloyd, Andrew Fleet, keeper of mineralogy at NHM, said: “The Natural History Museum is working in partnership with the Lyme Regis Development Trust and Field Studies Council regarding the possible development of a field study centre.

“The Lyme Regis Development Trust are leading on this so please address your enquiries to Marcus Dixon at the trust.”

Mr Dixon said: “We have had discussions with Mr Lloyd, which have not come to anything, and we would welcome any proposal from him.”

THE house at Woodberry Down was built in around 1900 and was used as a private house until the First World War.

It was then taken over by a prep school, attended by the likes of Sir John Hunt, a British mountaineer who successfully led the 1953 British expedition to Mount Everest.

It was bought by World Travel and used as holiday accommodation, and by 1937 the swimming pool had been built. It was used by the Americans during the Second World War, who ate in the main house but slept in tents in the grounds.

World Travel returned after the war and sold it 43 years ago to Joseph Allnatt, specialists in activities and field studies.

Geoff Lloyd and his family bought the house and grounds in March 1998 and continue to run it as an activities and field studies centre.