Iain Dalton, Save Little Owls nurseries and Socialist Party
At short notice, 15 parents, children and supporters gathered outside Leeds Civic Hall on Wednesday 16 October, as the Labour-run council executive voted to privatise council-run Little Owls nurseries.
Following closures of three nurseries at the beginning of this school year, the council now wants to find other operators for 12 of the remaining 21 nurseries.
The only information made available in the report they voted on was that it was proposed that neighbouring schools take on four of the 12. No information was given about who is in the running to take over the other eight, nor the criteria which the council is using to judge their suitability as providers.
Given the council’s past record, parents are bracing themselves for the worst: that any new providers will come with increases in charges, or cuts to hours. The council has refused to rule any of these out.
For fourteen years the council told us the cuts were the fault of the Tory government; now that government has gone but the same proposal to close and privatise nurseries remains! And this at a time when the Labour government professes to want to expand nursery provision.
A few Labour councillors took copies of the letter from parents addressed to the executive restating our opposition to their proposals. However, one executive board councillor, Jess Lennox, originally elected to council backed by Momentum, refused to take it outright.
Like with other aspects of the cuts, they are hiding behind the fact that many of the services they are cutting are not things they have a statutory duty to provide.
When I spoke at the rally, I explained how the very first pioneering Labour councillors in Bradford over 100 years ago used their position to fight for services for working-class families that Liberal and Tory councillors refused to provide, such as free school meals. These services eventually became nationally funded. We need political representatives who fight to advance workers’ interests, not throw our services to the profiteering bosses.
