A RURAL community centre set up with the help of Government funding almost 16 years ago could be converted to a home after organisers claimed it had become a victim of its own success.

The Exmoor Community Centre, based in the former village school in Winsford, initially provided on-site computer studies and remote learning.

It ran specialist courses on farm accounting and stock record keeping for farmers as well as language, art and genealogy studies.

In addition, it had a doctors' and alternative medicine consulting room and a print and copy shop.

But the growth of home computers, mobile phones and tablets, coupled with the economic downturn and a reduction in grant aid, has seen the centre's business plummet.

And the trustees behind the initiative have now applied to the Exmoor National Park Authority for planning permission to change the use of the building to a local needs affordable home.

The conversion would be a self-build project for a local resident.

In its application, the trustees said that, like other businesses, it had cut its costs considerably and even reduced staff.

"But so severe is the problem that we have been losing money for years and have completely exhausted our previous healthy reserves and are running at an unacceptable deficit," they said in their application.

They said the ancillary areas of the centre had suffered similar problems, with the Dulverton Surgery axing its bi-weekly surgeries to increase efficiency and cut costs.

The alternative medicine use had also dwindled to nothing as practitioners developed their own facilities.

Even the drop-in use of computers had virtually ceased as people bought their own equipment.

And the use of the centre's conference centre was now small compared to previous years.

"This has led to a further drop in our revenue, which we are now unable to recover," said the trustees.

"The current economic downturn and consequent drastic reduction in project funding from local, national and EU government sources has further exacerbated the problem and we are now unable to find any further sources of financial support."

The trustees said they had considered a range of alternative uses to keep the centre open but housing was the only option.

And the constraints of the site, which include a public right of way over part of it, meant the building could only be converted into a single two-bedroom dwelling.

The national park's planning committee is expected to consider the application in the next month or so.