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Cuts to play centre will hit worst off
• CONGRATULATIONS to those from the Kilburn Grange Play Centre and the other protesters who were determined to make sure their voices were heard whilst the cuts package which will hit them so hard was being pushed through the council (Size zero tax anger, February 22).
Lib Dem leader Keith Moffit may try to avoid blame here, but it is his executive which has decided to make these cuts having received a six per cent increase in government grant. No other London borough has had such a generous rise.
Given how disadvantaged many users of voluntary sector groups are, much of Camden’s voluntary sector actually reduces dependency on council services. So by cutting frontline services and grants to the advice sector and voluntary organisations, the Lib Dem/Tory coalition is playing double jeopardy with the welfare of the most needy people in Camden.
Mike Katz
Chairman Hampstead &
Kilburn Labour Party
Gladys Road NW6
• AS former founding parents and children attending the Chandos Day Nursery in Covent Garden we are delighted to read the article about the 25th anniversary last week (Nursery’s 25 years, Feb 22).
It brought back many wonderful memories of the rich experience of being part of the nursery back in the late seventies and early eighties.
Apart from the warm glow of nostalgia, we’d like to highlight a few unique aspects of the Nursery’s history. Margaret Thatcher’s government had vowed to reduce the number of quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations (quangos).
The centre for Environmental Studies (CES) in Chandos Place was a quango, and when its lease came up for renewal, Michael Hestletine decreed that it would not be renewed and gave a matter of weeks for the building to be closed.
The Department of the Environment then discovered that the CES hosted a number of activities, including Greenpeace and the CES Nursery in the building. We recall a day of negotiations with civil servants whilst reporting back to the barricade of parents, grandparents and babies in the nursery.
We won a reprieve of six months and became determined to found a new nursery – the Chandos Day Nursery.
In 1980 two of the parents completed a grant application for money raised in a recent telethon that provided initial start-up funding of £12,000 for the nursery.
Camden should be applauded for their support for what was simply blind faith by parents at that time. Dudley Court was under construction, but due to lack of funds the planned social services nursery could not be completed on the ground floor.
In 1982 Camden granted a lease on the basis that the parents would complete the build and fit it out with no financial assistance for running the nursery. Amongst the parents were architects who drew up the plans and managed the building project.
Other parents helped in all kinds of different ways, fitting the electronics, painting the walls and laying carpets.
Eventually the nursery was opened by the Equal Opportunities Commission. It was the first parent/employer ran in the UK. It was set out to offer a mixture of places to organisations such as the TUC, Dorling Kindersley and LSE, which subsidised the places for those that could afford them. Perhaps one of the most important things we all gained from our experience of setting up this unique nursery was how it kindled long-term friendships.
People who attended the nursery – now in their late 20s and living in different parts of the world – are still in touch nearly 30 years later as are their parents and even staff.
We have a very special bond that started as a parents’ desire for good quality childcare but became one of those rare truly life enhancing opportunities.
It’s gratifying to hear that Chandos Day Nursery is still going strong after 25 years (although we think it must be older than that).
A testimony to the efforts of many parents, staff and organisations determined to create the best child care they could – despite the odds.
Amy Douglas (Child)
Dave Martin (Parent)
Hadara Stanton (Child)
Hannah Martin (Child)
Helen Bembridge (Parent)
Jackie Douglas (Parent)
Ken Stanton (Parent)
Rivka Greenberg (Parent)
Sophie Martin (Child)
Tony Douglas (Parent)
Beatrice Road N4
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