Iain Dalton, Save Little Owls Nurseries campaign, and Leeds Socialist Party member
Information has dripped out of one after another nursery being saved from Leeds Labour council’s privatisation plans. Labour had already closed three nurseries last year, albeit delayed for four months because of campaigning.
The council had put eight nurseries through a ‘market-testing exercise’, finding only two sites that they felt they could accept. The reality: campaigning by parents and carers, supported by local trade unions and the Socialist Party, has pressured private companies to either not bid, or forced the council to reject offers it, didn’t feel could stand up to parents scrutiny.
At two nurseries, parents have been informed of the private provider that the council is lining up to take over – and that’s it! No information has gone to parents over whether opening hours, provision, charges etc, will remain the same.
Parents and carers of children at the nurseries feel that if the council had listened to our objections from the off, they could have saved themselves wasting money on this consultation. We remain opposed to transferring nurseries out of council control. Instead, we need real investment into publicly owned, democratically controlled, and fully funded nursery provision.
It is symptomatic of the pro-big business party that Labour has become, that under its watch, it has fought to push through these cuts and privatisation, in the teeth of resistance from working-class communities and trade unions. That we have been able to push their plans back so far it is also a reminder that working-class people can fight back and win.
