Wexford house could become ecology centre

A EUROPEAN environmental group has launched a campaign to turn a Wexford house into a centre for ecological training and research.

The recently formed Permanent Observatory on the Environment (OPEN) is a Brussels based group which provides access to information about EU environmental legislation and programmes and is working on a major environmental database. It has launched a fund raising drive to buy and equip Loughtown House, near Broadway, Co Wexford, as a world centre to foster research and run courses for students, teachers, business people, administrators and environmental activists.

The project has received encouragement from Wexford County Council, Teagasc, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the environment division of the Council of Europe. It has applied for funding assistance to the Commission's environment directorate and hopes that individual courses will be subsidised by the EU, UN and national governments.

The group also says it hopes to get help in buying the house from the National Heritage Council, although Dublin sources suggest the council, whose budget is severely stretched, is very unlikely to be able to help fund such a project.

Loughtown House, located between Rosslare and Carnsore Point, is a late Georgian house on 25 acres in an area containing sites of ecological importance.

To fund the project, costed at an initial £400,000 and expected to cost the same again annually to run, OPEN has produced a wall chart detailing EU environmental legislation, which it is selling for £22. OPEN can be reached at 13 Rue de Van Campenhout, 1040 Bruxelles.