Darlington nurseries face uncertain future

11:15am Saturday 29th September 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Andy Walker, Chief Reporter (Darlington)

A THREE-MONTH consultation period on the future of two Darlington nurseries will begin on Monday.

Staff and parents will be asked to give their views on the potential closure of the Kids and Co nurseries, in Borough Road and at Northwood Primary School.

A spokeswoman for Darlington Borough Council, which runs the nurseries, said no firm decisions had been made about their future.

The Northern Echo understands staff received letters last week, telling them of the possible closure, with parents informed after that.

A total of 44 members of staff are employed across the two sites, with the equivalent of 24 full-time jobs at risk.

The council spokeswoman said: “Darlington Borough Council is commencing a 90 day consultation on the future of its Kids and Co Nurseries at Borough Road and Northwood, as well as its flexible provision.

“This action is a result of a changing market with an increase in range of provision for families.

“Kids and Co currently requires a subsidy from the council to operate and in the current economic environment, where the council is seeking to reduce overall costs to Darlington residents as a whole, this situation is being reviewed.

“Comments and views will be fed into the final report, which is due in January.”

The 90-day consultation will include staff and nursery parents, as well as other stakeholders.

Comments(20)

DOGLAWRENCE says...
7:09pm Sat 29 Sep 12

Might as well just say we are closing Them but by law they have to have a 90 day Consultation Period the end result will still be the same Closure

Report this post »

kimbo666 says...
8:57am Sun 30 Sep 12

my baby girl goes to northwood kids and co and she absolutley loves it. the staff are amazing and the only reason i put my son into northwood school is so i could pick them up at the same time. i have no-one to help me pick up my kids if they were at 2 seperate places so dont know what i will do if it is to close. why dont darlington borough council put some money into things like this instead of decorating bloody roundabouts!!

Report this post »

marilyn49 says...
11:19am Sun 30 Sep 12

Good point kimbo666- not to mention the money spent on the wheelie bins. We know where the priorities lie!

Report this post »

Lifetime Townie says...
8:20pm Sun 30 Sep 12

When the council gets it's priorities wrong, which is quite often then we should remember them at election time and vote them out!

Report this post »

mal-one says...
9:06pm Sun 30 Sep 12

As someone who is directly effected by this decison I want to know what the council is doing to "Reduce overall costs to Darlington residents". Does this include producing a free guide to Darlington as promoted by the leader of the council in this weeks free paper, or looking at the vast salarys of those in charge of the council or perhaps the fact that large numbers of council staff are on flexi time and get 12 days extra holiday per year on top of the 30+ holidays they already get. Thought not.

Report this post »

100%Darlington says...
10:48pm Sun 30 Sep 12

12 days extra holiday, only if the employee puts in the additional hours work, no pay rise for the past 3 years, get real mal-one and don't have a go at the workers.

Report this post »

mal-one says...
7:28am Mon 1 Oct 12

100% Darlington, I am not having a go at the workers just council policy, and the way they waste money left, right and centre. The council needs to look at it's priorities and help young families with services like this in these difficult times. By the way I haven't had a pay rise myself for the past 3 years.

Report this post »

GeorgeAlexander says...
11:43am Mon 1 Oct 12

Why can't Kids and Co merge into Northwood and Borough Road's existing structures? Could they not take over the running of the servic

Report this post »

rushyford says...
2:26pm Mon 1 Oct 12

Ofsted Outstanding House of Eden has 6 nurseries in South West Co. Durham to choose from. Ring 01325 329931 & ask for details.

Report this post »

rushyford says...
2:27pm Mon 1 Oct 12

www.edennursery.co.u
k

Report this post »

spoorsjone says...
4:28pm Mon 1 Oct 12

those people who want kids should bring them up themselves instead of dumping them on other people, and before anybody says anything i brought my children up myself instead of dumping them and going off to work.

Report this post »

kimbo666 says...
8:25am Tue 2 Oct 12

its not dumping your kids on other people, its good for kids to go to nursery early and get use to other children. Not all of us have the option to stay at home and i couldnt afford to sit at home with my baby otherwise i would have to live of benefits which you would also complain about
Welcome to the 21st century spoorsjone

Report this post »

spoorsjone says...
1:23pm Tue 2 Oct 12

some people are easy to wind up-welcome to 21st century humour.

Report this post »

Darlingtonsi says...
4:49pm Tue 2 Oct 12

Glad people can make a joke out of something so serious people are facing losing there jobs if no resolve if you wanna have a joke go on there Facebook page save kids and co and see how many lol's you get. Normally I would let silly comments slide but I'm affected by this too as are many family's. the council need to sort something out to help this situation there must be a way they can move money round to help kids I say take it off the people who waste it I.e people who chose not to work silly little projects like wheelie bins or even use some of the Darlington BID money that's supposed to help business.

Report this post »

louisewilson55 says...
2:05pm Thu 4 Oct 12

This is no place for jokes, my daughter goes to northwood and has speech problems through having a cleft palate. Northwood got her the speech therapy we've been fighting the NHS for and have brought her on greatly. Moving her would be a big step back in her development especially at such a peak time in her education...

Report this post »

spoorsjone says...
4:24pm Thu 4 Oct 12

If you are against these cuts get in touch with your m.p.,get him/her to lobby the government,get a campaign going,but understand if you save these centres funds will be cut elsewhere.

Report this post »

BMD says...
6:28am Fri 5 Oct 12

Darlington Borough Council can never seem to grasp that when they take on new services or provide new services, that people are always involved.

In some cases the service provided has been a luxury that has not been sustainable; inevitably when the service is removed DBC will blame the Government for their own mismanagement. I cringe at the amount of money wasted by DBC on the ill advised Major Capital Projects completed within the borough.

Report this post »

ianh says...
5:06pm Fri 5 Oct 12

Cuts such as these will strike at the very heart of young hardworking families.

Whilst i understand that dbc face a massive reduction in grants from central government, their priorites do seem well out of order.
ie; why for instance do we need 2 or 3 cllrs per ward? surely 1 would do, saving all those allowances.
Why did they introduce a pay freeze/cut for employees yet leave their own expenses and allowances untouched?
Why does a small town like dbc require a chief exec on 180k per yr?
I believe her assistant is on over 100k.

Any cuts must surely start at the top, and this applies as much to the government as the councils

Report this post »

Lifetime Townie says...
7:20pm Fri 5 Oct 12

Quite right ianh, why do we need so many councillors in the town? I'm told that we have 53 councillors and for a population like Darlington that's about 50 too many. Why not have a system of 3 full time reps. to take the place of councillors and their committees of "talking shops" After the cuts in workforce the top lot doesn't have as much to look after so they could be paid accordingly starting with a chief exec. on say 80k at the most. Fair enough???

Report this post »

spoorsjone says...
7:37pm Fri 5 Oct 12

why have any councillors at all,but there would still have to be cuts made to the budget,there is no getting away from that.

Report this post »

click2find

About cookies

We want you to enjoy your visit to our website. That's why we use cookies to enhance your experience. By staying on our website you agree to our use of cookies. Find out more about the cookies we use.

I agree