Battle to save Boltons Harvey Nursery returns this week

The planned closure of the last local authority run nursery is to be discussed again by the council this week.

The decision has been ‘called in’ by the Bolton Labour group led by Cllr Martin Donaghy, their children’s services spokesman, after the decision was made on September 13 by the council to close Harvey Nursery, off Fletcher Street, Bolton.

Bolton Council have previously said they can no longer afford to heavily subsidise a service that only caters for a small number of children from one part of the borough. In January, the council stated that the nursery is only operating at 44 per cent capacity, and its closure would save £103,886.

Calling in the decision, a motion in the name of Cllr Donaghy says: "A new consultation report, with a recommendation to close Harvey Nursery, was approved by the Executive Member on the 13th September 2021. Council is extremely disappointed that eight months after the express wishes of Council was made absolutely clear, this new report was considered without any evidence being provided that showed that the exploration of options aiming to make the Nursery financially viable had actually taken place.

"Notwithstanding the arguments for and against the closure of the Nursery, this Council expresses its deep concern that the ‘call in’ process is not fit for purpose when a clear steer from the majority of Councillors to a minority administration is blatantly and deliberately ignored.

"Council reminds the minority Conservative administration that they govern with the consent of a majority of councillors from other parties, and therefore again calls upon the Leader of the Council to respect the majority views expressed by members, by withdrawing the current closure proposals until a full and up to date report is brought back to the executive member that identifies what work has taken place since January 2021 to attempt to save Harvey Nursery from closure."

Share this post