Save Little Owls campaigner
The executive board of Leeds Labour council has voted to press on with closing three council-run Little Owls nurseries, and exploring privatising 12 others.
This is despite pleas from some Labour councillors to delay the decision, especially since Labour nationally announced plans to increase nursery places by converting empty school classrooms. As the campaign has put it, why convert classrooms when you have purpose-built facilities that just need saving?
This decision follows a council ‘engagement exercise’, where not a single response to an email address for comments supported the council’s proposals. The council is justifying cuts and privatisation on the grounds that sufficient alternative childcare places exist. But even its own document “accepts” that provision will not be as good as is currently provided.
But the fight by parents and carers to save the nurseries doesn’t stop here. Following this vote, the executive’s decision has been ‘called in’ to go before the council’s scrutiny committee.
The campaign has a deputation to the full council meeting on 10 July, the first meeting allowing deputations since the proposals were announced back in March!
