THE fight to save a £1 billion science park in North Yorkshire will be taken to Parliament today.

Selby MP John Grogan is to table an Early Day Motion (EDM), attacking the "shortsighted" decision to abandon plans to build the European Spallation Source facility at Burn Airfield near Selby.

Yesterday, Mr Grogan and Selby District Council bosses met Government ministers in London to discuss a possible U-turn.

As reported in The Press last week, outgoing Science Minister Lord Sainsbury announced on his departure that no major science facility should be built outside the existing sites at Oxford and Daresbury.

If given the go ahead, the ESS centre would have allowed scientists to carry out research with neutrons, and would have provided 2,000 jobs for Selby District.

Mr Grogan said: "Clearly, this is going to be quite a battle. It turns out Lord Sainsbury is still in charge of a long term review of science, despite his resignation, so we will need all the lobbying power of the district and the Leeds City Region to have the Burn site considered, and to keep it in the running.

"We need to be not disappointed, but fierce."

Selby District Council's economy boss Brian Percival, who was at yesterday's meeting, said: "We need some clarity on the Government's position, and urgently, because of the consequences for Selby's economy and for planning the infrastructure around Burn."

Lord Sainsbury's successo,r Malcolm Wicks, has said talk of the ESS plan for Burn being "killed off" is premature. He said people should wait until European bosses decided whether to build it at all, before debating where it should be.

Mr Grogan's EDM said of Lord Sainsbury's announcement: "Such a policy is shortsighted, and overlooking the potential offered by projects such as the ESS at Burn would impinge upon future scientific research and development in this country."