BRITISH Telecom's Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station has this week confirmed that its visitor attractions will be closed "for Easter and beyond".

The Goonhilly Visitors' Centre, Segway Tours and the renowned Future World attraction will be closed during the time which sees the first big tourist surge in Cornwall – the Easter holidays.

The shock news comes six months after Goonhilly announced that in just over a year, their revolutionary Future World attraction had attracted more than 100,000 people through its doors.

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When asked if the visitors element of Goonhilly will ever be reopened, BT officials refused to comment.

A spokesman told the West Briton: "BT is currently looking at the future of the assets at Goonhilly, including the Goonhilly Visitors' Centre and is discussing options with other organisations.

"It would be inappropriate to provide any details on the organisations involved and the discussions until further progress has been made. The visitors' centre will remain closed over the Easter holidays and beyond, whilst we undertake these discussions.

"Operational activities at Goonhilly, such as the research and testing and subsea cable operations, are continuing as normal."

A further comment is expected to be released to the public by the end of April, but until then the future of the visitor element of the station hangs in the balance.

Goonhilly was once the world's largest earth station, with more than 60 dishes pointing into space, and has provided employment for many people on The Lizard.

It was responsible for sending millions of telephone calls, TV pictures, faxes and internet connections around the globe, and was the first earth station to receive live TV images from America and broadcast Live Aid in 1985.

Over the years a number of dishes have been removed from the site but it still manages to entice children and adults from all over the country.

The visitors' centre, which attracts thousands of pupils from all over the UK each year, details 200 years of communications history including a comprehensive history of the large listed satellite, affectionately known as Arthur.

Since 2007 there have been a number of rumours about development at the Goonhilly site.

One included using land there to build a 'super-school' for The Lizard, while rumours that it could be used by ShelterBox to build the world's first international disaster relief training academy were proved untrue after an agreement between the charity and BT couldn't be reached.