Shocked councillors believe there is a “significant case” for a new nursery along the Dumbarton Road corridor, after it emerged the council has dropped plans to open a service in Yoker sports centre.
Council officials have decided there is no longer enough demand to warrant opening a new nursery, but the four councillors for Garscadden/Scotstounhill have promised to keep making the case.
It had initially been proposed to help the council meet the Scottish Government’s 1140 hours free childcare expansion.
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But the council has said there is now “ample” capacity in the area and officials warned a new early learning and childcare centre could “endanger the future of the existing nurseries”.
The area’s four councillors, Eva Murary, Bill Butler [both Labour], Chris Cunningham and Malcolm Mitchell [both SNP] have united “to make the case for this project to remain on the agenda and to be progressed”.
In a statement, they expressed their shock after discovering the proposals “had been deemed no longer required and they were to be put on hold”.
It added: “It is our view that despite this recommendation by officers, that it remains the case that Yoker/Whiteinch still requires a nursery and following today’s meeting it is clear that a number of factors had not been fully taken into account prior to any decision being made.
“The communities that make up the Dumbarton Road corridor in the north west of the city have lower car ownership than other areas and with the lack of connectivity in regards to public transport between the north and the south many of our constituents will be simply unable to access nurseries.”
They acknowledged “the financial issues facing the city at present” but added: “We cannot ignore the fact that this decision has been made based on a snapshot of information with no acknowledgement of new housing developments in the area which will add to demand.”
The councillors released the statement following a special meeting of the Garscadden/Scotstounhill Area Partnership on Friday [December 16] to discuss the issue.
After the Scottish Government pledged to expand nursery entitlement for all three and four year olds, and some two year olds, from 600 hours of funded provision to 1140, the council undertook a citywide planning exercise to measure capacity.
Scotstoun and Yoker were identified as areas where extra nursery places would be required. There were 799 registered spaces within a three-mile radius in 2017/18.
Officials identified an opportunity to create a nursery in the closed Yoker sports centre but have reported the covid pandemic stopped these plans from progressing. Since 2018, the council has taken on two additional funded providers [non-council nurseries] which increased the capacity in the area to 936 spaces.
A report to councillors stated that, following the pandemic, nursery numbers “have continued to be lower than anticipated” and there is a “reasonably high level of as yet unused nursery capacity”.
“It now appears that five years on from the original planning exercise, there is no longer sufficient demand to require another nursery expansion project to be delivered in Yoker sports centre,” the report added.
“To progress with the original plan to create another 87 place nursery would potentially endanger the future of the existing nurseries in the area as there is a finite local population of eligible children seeking places.”
A council spokeswoman said: “Figures show that there is ample capacity in both council and partner providers in the local area for families looking to access early years’ places which was not the case when the initial proposal was being explored.”
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