Parents petition council to save baby room at Brighton nursery

Parents at a council-owned nursery have started a petition to try to stop the closure of the baby room.

Brighton and Hove City Council is in the process of moving the Bright Start Nursery from the Old Slipper Baths, in Barrack Yard, off North Road, to the Tarner Centre, in Ivory Place, off Morley Street.

The move will mean an end to places for under-twos at the council-run nursery, except for those who are already enrolled.

The petition is on the Change.org website and is headed: “We are calling on Brighton and Hove City Council to stop the closure of the Bright Start baby room.”

By last night (Friday 5 April) it had almost 1,200 signatures, taking it close to reaching the threshold of 1,250 which would qualify it to be debated at a meeting of the full council.

The petition said: “The closure of the baby room will strip the city centre of one of the few affordable nurseries in the area providing care for under-twos.

“The nursery has a high proportion of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and a high proportion with English as an additional language.

“But the council has not undertaken a full equalities impact assessment on the impact of the baby room closure.

“The council has also failed to consider other locations for the nursery, particularly co-locating the nursery in the nearby St Bartholomew’s School, which the council is trying to close.

“The closure of the baby room also breaks the Labour administration’s manifesto, which stated: ‘A Labour council will look to increase the city’s provision for pre-school children and seek to maintain council-run nurseries wherever possible.’”

Parents have campaigned against the move since it was announced last September, questioning councillors and with deputations going to meetings of the full council and the Children, Families and Schools Committee.

Petition organiser Ed Armston-Sheret has a baby daughter at the nursery. He said: “The council has now released its final plans for Bright Start.

“They’re cutting all new places for under-twos. This is incredibly short-sighted. There’s a national childcare crisis and we’re just months away from a general election.”

“Parents feel betrayed by Labour as they stood on a manifesto that promised to protect nurseries and look to expand pre-school provision.”

The council is moving the nursery as part of a £30 million package of cuts and savings to its budget, with the nursery requiring a £104,000 subsidy.

The previous Green administration had proposed closing the nursery in February last year but the money was found to keep it operating. But nurseries are not a “statutory service” that councils have to provide.

Labour councillor Lucy Helliwell, who co-chairs the council’s Childrens, Families and Learning Committee, said that her party had saved the Bright Start Nursery from closure by the previous Green administration but the nursery could not continue at its current site.

Councillor Helliwell said: “The majority of children at the nursery have always been over two years old and so it was decided to only offer provision to those children while accommodating the two children under two.

“The nursery sufficiency survey shows that there are nurseries offering this service in the area but if families are struggling to find this provision, they are welcome to contact the council and we will assist them.

“Bright Start Nursery is part of the family of council-run nurseries which Labour are proud to have saved as one of a very few councils have managed to maintain due to the savage cuts to council spending from this government.”