POLITICIANS and scientists today met the Government minister who will decide the fate of East Malling's research station and the future of about 150 employees.

Members of Horticulture Research International (HRI) East Malling and four Kent MPs had a 50-minute meeting with Lord Whitty, Minister for Food and Farming, in London.

They want to gain assurances that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would finance a switch to running the site as an independent research station and that it would continue to place contracts with the station.

Lord Whitty will reach a decision next month on proposals to drop the station from the Government subsidised public body HRI.

Up to 150 jobs could be lost if it cannot sustain itself with the help of the East Malling Trust for Horticultural Research, the body which owns the research station.

The MPs at the meeting were Sir John Stanley, Ann Widdecombe, Jonathan Shaw and Hugh Robertson, together with Mike Solomon, who becomes head of HRI East Malling next month, Jim Quinlan, director of the trust, and Tim Marks, representing the station's staff.