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Letters to the Editor
 
Nursery silence speaks volumes

A year ago some parents from Agar Grove Community Nursery were informed their current premises on Wrotham Road would be closed in 2006 and moved to another location in the borough.
This was to facilitate the development of the council’s Sure Start Baby Centre at the site.
Months went by with no further information available to parents.
February 28 2006: at the AGM of Camden Community Nurseries parents who asked questions regarding the future of the nursery and provision for their children were met with what they described as a ‘hostile’ response.
CCN’s Management Committee said nothing more was known about the future of the nursery apart from confirmation that it would close on July 31. The committee said they expected further details from Camden Council by March 31.
A week later a worried mother was told that there was no further information available and neither to expect news of any developments by March 31.
Parents discovered through questions, meetings and further phone calls that the nursery would not be relocated. It would simply be shut down.
By early April 2006 no provision had been made for any of the 30 children currently attending the nursery.
Some placements may be made available for children who had been placed in Agar Grove by social services but those children whose parents had chosen the nursery for their children were not guaranteed a place.
There were no guarantees that any of the staff currently working with the children, some of them vulnerable, would be accompanying any of the children to other nurseries in the borough.
There was no guarantee that the children would be placed at any of the two remaining CNN nurseries. For months when the member of staff responsible for the baby centre initiative was off ill, no-one else in the office did anything to further the project. The parents requested a meeting at the earliest opportunity. By April 7 we expected a reply. None came.
It was suggested by Camden officers that the standards at Agar had been low, and that there had been problems for at least two years. This is not the case, hence the positive Ofsted report.
It needs support, yes, but it is not failing. The earliest a meeting could take place
was May 5.
It was not lost on the parents that this was one day clear of the local government election.
We asked for an earlier date. Eventually by 4pm on Friday April 7 we received a faxed letter stating a meeting could take place on May 2. Our children are worth more than this.
The Parents of Agar Grove
Community Centre



In the course of your report on the closed Fitzrovia Children’s Centre, Councillor Theo Blackwell is quoted as saying “senior officers have been in contact with the Trust”.
The facts of the matter are that – following our offer of alternatives for the reopening of the Centre in June 2005 – apart from an acknowledgement, there has been no substantive response from the council. Indeed an offer in July 2005 to prepare a business plan in conjunction with Westminster Children’s Society for the running of the Centre has, to this day, received no response.
On September 20 2005, we were told that there were legal issues (since resolved), and on October 4 that Gillian Humble, the officer responsible, would no longer be dealing with it.
Since which time, now over six months ago, no communication has been received from Camden.
The Fitzrovia Trust’s offer to reopen the nursery at no cost to the council still stands.
Sandra Edwards
Director
The Fitzrovia Trust
South Parade
W4



Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.
 
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