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From left: Shiri Shalmy with son Lucian; Unison’s Andrew Berry; Lucia Durante with Lila Ringham, 1, and Dinah Nabarro with Imigo Dibos (14 months), protest this week |
Parents threaten to boycott new nursery
Mistakes were made in design, councillor admits
NURSERY provision in Islington was in crisis this week after parents threatened to boycott a new underfives’ centre being built in Holloway which will be without easy access to an outside playground.
The new state-of-the art Mitford Children’s Centre in Hornsey Road is due to replace the popular Andover Early Learning Centre at Finsbury Park, which will close after 30 years.
But whereas children at Andover currently enjoy 600 square metres of outside play space, the Mitford centre will provide a small 70-square metre balcony overlooking a busy main road.
“It’s the way they do it in China,” a senior officer with Islington Council responsible for under- fives is said to have told a union official.
The Mitford centre is still under construction at the old Hornsey Road indoor swimming baths.
It is due to open in September.
Parent Shiri Shalmy, whose child currently attends Andover, said she was appalled that the council would build a nursery without essential open space for outdoor play.
She added: “I understand there was no input from parents when designs for the new Mitford centre were first discussed, apart from possible colour scheme.
“The balcony will overlook Hornsey Road, where there is the likelihood of fumes and pollution from vehicles. It will be very uncomfortable for children in summer.”
The building will include a shared garden, but this doesn’t belong to the nursery. The nursery will have occasional access to the garden, but can only reach it by lift or stairs, and only then through private offices.
Ms Shalmy, who may refuse to send her child to the Mitford, said: “Children at the Andover centre currently have a lovely large open space where they can let off steam.
“At the new Mitford centre it seems they will be stuck inside most of the time, which isn’t very healthy.”
Labour councillor Phil Morris said lack of easily accessible open space was unsatisfactory but at this stage there was nothing that could be done about it.
He added: “This was all before my time but clearly some decisions on planning and design were taken which were wrong.”
Executive member for children, Lib Dem Councillor Ursula Woolley, said the balcony will provide some open air. “But there will be a beautiful open space at ground floor level which I’m sure the children will have access to according to a time table,” she added.
Union officials and parents fighting to save the Andover centre on the Andover estate, say it will be difficult to relocate many of the 56 children.
Andover was expected to close in September, but Islington may keep it open until the end of the year if there are problems relocating the children.
Andrew Berry, deputy branch secretary of Islington’s Unison trade union, said he understood there will be insufficient places for all the children from the Andover centre.
He added: “Not everyone wants to go to the Mitford centre because of the lack of open space, so the council are suggesting the Margaret McMillan centre at Hornsey Rise, in Archway. But nine of our members at Margaret McMillan – representing half of the staff – are being threatened with redundancy because of falling roles.
“It means that whereas there is the capacity to take on 150 children, they will be only able to accommodate about 50 to 70 – which is what they have currently.”
But Cllr Woolley has now pledged a policy of no job losses.
She said she was sorry that redundancy proceedings had started at a time when numbers of children were low.
She added: “I would like to reassure parents at Margaret McMillan that there will be other ways of managing the period between now and when the numbers go back up again so that there don’t need to be any redundancies.”
‘The consultation is an empty gesture’
Dinah Nabarro, said: “It’s impossible. We’re being asked to move our children into nurseries which we haven’t even seen. All the decisions have been made, there’s no scope for the decision to be changed. The consultation now is just an empty gesture. [The council] did a needs assessment for 33 families and on the basis of that they‘re shutting the Andover. It’s a kneejerk reaction to funding. Otherwise they would have thought about what they were doing.”
Lucia Durante, whose child Lila only started at the nursery six weeks ago, said: “[The new centre] hasn’t got enough capacity for everyone. It doesn’t feel fair that some won’t get a space.
They say it’s a merger but it’s not because not everyone will get a place.
The time frame of the whole thing is completely unacceptable.
We’re being given a very short period of time to get our children settled.” |
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