PARENTS in a part of Whitefield will have to find somewhere else to take their toddlers after plans to close a nursery were confirmed.

This evening Bury Council’s cabinet accepted the request from governors at Ribble Drive Community Primary School to remove its nursery provision.

The decision means the school, in Ribble Drive, Whitefield, will provide for children aged four to 11 instead of aged three to 11.

Since the proposal was made public shortly before Easter this year, parents have raised concerns about why they were not informed about the possibility of closure before they were offered places for their children at the start of the year.

It is also believed the closure will lead to the loss of three jobs at the nursery.

From the public gallery, grandmother Janice Hyde said the way the decision has been handled by the school had been “underhand” and “disgraceful”.

She added: “There were still parents hanging around that school in July who didn’t know that it was going to close in September, and that is unacceptable.”

Council leader Rishi Shori, who is chairman of the cabinet committee, said Mrs Hyde’s concerns had been noted and will be passed to the school’s governors.

He added that it was not the council’s role to say whether or not the way the school had acted was appropriate, but simply to ratify the proposals if they were legally sound, which they are.

The council report, presented by Cllr Sharon Briggs, cabinet member for children, families and culture, said that the demand for places at the nursery has declined in recent years to the extent that it now only offers places in the mornings.

The report further states: “The costs of running the nursery, including meeting statutory staffing ratios, are significantly higher than the funding received using the Early Years Single Funding Formula (EYSFF), which is set to reduce further according to known nursery intake numbers.

“Based upon current numbers, funding and income generation there is a significant shortfall to meet the costs of running the nursery, and low numbers of pupils in nursery over a period of time are unsustainable.”

One member of the public gallery, an employee at the nursery who is being made redundant, raised concerns about the school hiring more staff in light of what had happened to her job.

Klare Rufo, the council’s assistant director for learning and culture, said how the school runs its staff and tackles internal challenges about resources is the school’s decision, not the council's.

Cllr Shori reiterated that all concerns will be passed on to the school’s governors, but noted that they were not present to defend themselves or answer questions in the cabinet meeting.