Park protests at nursery cuts

Parents and children met to campaign against cuts to partnership nurseries in East Renfrewshire which could eventually lead to closure for many.

Carrying a banner saying “save our nurseries”, the protesters began to spread the word of their struggle to the local community.

Campaigner Gillian Irons told The Extra: “This protest brought together nursery parents past and present who understand the important role of partnership nurseries.

“These cuts are likely to lead to job losses and nursery closures and many parents are unhappy at the lack of consultation and the lack of time given to prepare for these changes”.

Another protester, Gillian Thomson will have two nursery aged children in August.

She added: “There are unlikely to be any funded places available at other private nurseries and the council run nurseries often can’t provide the wraparound care to fit in with working parents.

“These changes, therefore, mean that I have completely lost my right as a parent to select the nursery that best meets the needs of my child and us as a family”.

A council spokesman said: “As part of our budget we set out that we would review our partnerships for pre-five provision of nursery education to source cost savings.

“We have set out, as other councils have, a limit to the number of places we’ll buy in based on the average number of East Renfrewshire pupils that have attended over the past three years. That works out at more 300 places we are buying in from private providers”.