Two nurseries in Penarth will merge with nearby primary schools in September despite more than 100 people objecting to the plans. Bute Cottage Nursery will merge with Evenlode Primary School, and Cogan Nursery will merge with Cogan Primary School.
Both nurseries will remain at their current sites but the governance teams will be merged to smooth the transition for pupils going from nursery to primary school. Read more: Mum and young children stuck indoors for months due to unsuitable council housing
The mergers received a final sign off on Monday, April 11, at a Vale of Glamorgan council cabinet meeting amid a rancorous debate about whether Bute Cottage would eventually relocate.
Council bosses claimed any fears Bute Cottage would be relocated to a single site at Evenlode were based on “disinformation”, while local Conservative politicians blasted the council’s decision on the merger as “out of touch” and deeply unpopular.
Last month, the council issued a statutory notice, which it is legally required to, inviting any formal public objections. A total of 111 people wrote to the council objecting to the merger plans, with major concerns over any future potential relocation of the nurseries. But these concerns were based on “incorrect information”, according to deputy council leader Lis Burnett.
She said: “It’s been a challenging discussion, dominated by very many factual inaccuracies that have caused major upset and concern within the local community. It’s become a political football, which often happens so close to elections, but that’s unfortunate. Whatever the decision today, the nurseries will continue to operate from their existing locations.
“The vast majority of objections were based on the nurseries moving site, which they’re not. It needs to be said that a statutory consultation is not a referendum. We have to look at how we can stop disinformation becoming dominant within consultations.”
The decision was criticised by the Conservatives. Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies, MS for South Wales Central and a Vale councillor, who called the council “arrogant and out of touch” and claimed the nursery would likely end up moving from its current location.
He said: “This council is deeply out of touch with the people of Penarth. The community has roundly rejected these mergers, in the statutory consultation and in a widely subscribed petition. People I speak to across the Vale have had enough of this arrogant and distant cabinet, formed of turncoats, who take with one hand and take with the other.
“It is wholly inappropriate for the council to be forcing these mergers through during the pre-election period. Instead, voters should first be allowed to give their verdict and be given the opportunity to elect a new council that will not go through with the plans. Make no mistake, the next step for the Vale council will likely be to move Bute Cottage from its fantastic Bute Lane site altogether.”
Insisting the nursery won’t move, one council boss claimed the merger debate has been “blighted by misinformation” in the media, on social media and from local politicians.
Peter King, cabinet member for neighbourhood services and transport, said: “This entire proposal has become blighted by misinformation, perhaps a little in mainstream media, certainly on social media, and maybe by political opponents seeking to further their own campaigns has contributed to misinforming the public.
“I have been contacted by a number of people who are absolutely convinced that we intend to close the properties, sell them off and relocate. I even had one person tell me that they know that’s not what it says in the report, but that’s clearly what it would mean. How on earth they can come to that view can only be because somebody has sowed the seed of an idea.
“I hope people take the trouble to read reports and all the appendices, because everything that has been said is documented and explained and defended. It’s just that unfortunately, it hasn’t always been reported quite so accurately by others.”
Concerns over a future relocation were first raised in September last year when the council published two key documents about the merger. Both a consultation document sent to local parents and a cabinet report referred to relocating Bute Cottage nursery to the Evenlode site, with money set aside. A feasibility study and new consultation would be carried out too.
Both the cabinet report and consultation document said: “Should the proposals be approved, the council would prioritise relocating nursery provision at Evenlode Primary School onto a single site. The council would undertake a full feasibility assessment and any plans would be subject to a separate consultation exercise as part of the planning process.”
Both documents also said the relocation would not take place as part of the current merger proposal, and council bosses have repeatedly denied the nurseries would move site.
