Plans for new nursery in north Cambridge scrapped to cut costs
The new nursery would cost nearly half a million pounds.
Pictured above: East Barnwell Community Centre, the permanent site from which the nursery was moved. (Credit: Google).
Plans for a new nursery have been scrapped to save money, despite it being promised for years.
Cambridgeshire County Council voted on Tuesday to remove a new nursery from its long-delayed community centre project in Abbey, Cambridge, to save nearly £500,000.
The Children and Young People’s Committee said it was necessary to ensure the project was “economically viable”, but opposition councillors complained that it had been promised since 2013.
The existing nursery in East Barnwell, Seesaw Preschool, would have moved into the new site, but it will now have to remain in a temporary mobile structure on the site of Galfrid Primary School.
The nursery was relocated from the existing East Barnwell centre, where it had been for 20 years, in 2019 to make way for the permanent building with the expectation that it would return soon.
The original plan for a new community centre would have had a library, a nursery, affordable housing, office space for council staff, and more, all under one roof.
City councillors representing Abbey said the county council was choosing a “cut-price, no-frills building to reduce costs”.
Cllr Nicky Massey, Labour city councillor for Abbey, said: “The initial idea of a refreshed and modern nursery being built alongside new library and community facilities was a welcome and exciting set of proposals.
“The original plans really spoke to the need for a set of integrated services with the potential to improve outcomes for local people and give children the best start in life.
“I believe it is important to invest in our communities, especially those which experience high levels of deprivation. It’s very sad news for families that the county council are looking to remove the nursery, citing financial reasons.”
She added that the financial arguments against the move were "misleading", and said the council had previously committed to the project in its entirety, so there was no reason to complain about the cost now.
The temporary Galfrid site has had £15,000 invested in it already and would require no additional funding, whereas the new site would cost £450,000 and ongoing operational costs would be more than double - from £7,500 to £16,600.
The mobile site has a 20 year lifespan, and also capable of expanding relatively easily, according to the council. However, the new site would be smaller and would struggle to expand.
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire County Council said: “The re-development of the East Barnwell site must be as commercial as possible to make the development proposals economically viable and limit the financial impact on the county council.
“There is some uncertainty as to whether this will be the case for the Early Years (EY) provision; the capital contribution for the EY element of the redevelopment will be approx. £450,000.”
They added: “Child numbers attending the pre-school have remained stable following this move, and the council will continue to be able to meet its statutory duty to provide sufficient early years and childcare places with Seesaw operating from either the Galfrid or the East Barnwell site.
“Officers met with representatives from Abbey People Trust and Seesaw Preschool on October 1 to look at the pros and cons of operating from the Galfrid Primary School site long-term or returning to the East Barnwell site.
“One advantage of the Galfrid site is the potential to accommodate more children in the future if demand for places in the Abbey Ward grows beyond the levels currently forecast.
"Since the original vision of the hub ten years ago, the financial climate has changed significantly; as such the social and community considerations must be weighed alongside the council’s statutory sufficiency duty with regard to the provision of EY and childcare places and the cost of delivering on that duty.”
“As the early years sector operates as a market, the starting point for charges payable by the provider in the newly refurbished East Barnwell centre has to be reflective of the market rent.
“Officers in the Strategic Assets Team have estimated that the overall costs for operating an EY business out of the East Barnwell Hub will be approximately £16,600 per annum – which covers rent, services, and utility costs.
“If the EY provider, currently Seesaw, informed the council they were unable to afford this cost, then the 'less than best’ process would be applied which could lead to a reduction in the rent.”
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