Nursery to close aftercrucial vote

Sarita Kitson appealed to them to allow the Pavilion Nursery to move to new premises.

But Arun District Council's development control committee rejected by eight votes to five, with two abstentions, the plans by nursery manager Christine Southerton to be able to operate within commercial premises in Durban Road.

She has to leave the nursery's present location in Hook Lane by December 31 after 16 years when the lease runs out.

Site owner the University of Chichester is planning extensive work on the location as part of its multi-million pound investment in its Bognor campus.

Mother of two Mrs Kitson said she would have to leave her part-time job as a field teacher for the RSPB charity if that happened.

Before the meeting, she said: 'I sometimes work different days each week. The Pavilion Nursery is one of the few places that can accommodate my working life around my children.

'I live in Pagham. The fact I am prepared to drive four miles to the nursery before I go on to work shows how valuable I think the Pavilion Nursery is.'

Mrs Kitson's two children '“ Emma (3) and Matthew (14 months) '“ attend the nursery together one day a week.

Emma has been going along for nearly a year and a half, while Matthew has been a regular for eight months.

The nursery's willingness to look after both youngsters together is another reason why Mrs Kitson said she wanted the nursery to stay.

Mrs Southerton said after the meeting she was '˜gutted' by the decision. She had earlier told councillors about the nursery's desperate need for new premises.

She applied to the council to change one of the nine units in the Regis Business Centre from offices for light industrial purposes to a day nursery. She wants to look after a maximum of 33 children, up to five years old, at any time from 7.30am until 6pm Mondays to Saturdays. The unit of 190sq m is slightly bigger than her existing premises where she employs six staff and has up to 24 children at a time.

'If we are not able to have the change of use, the nursery will close,' she stated. 'The staff that I employ will be out of work.

'Many of the 30-odd families who are currently using my facilities will also be out of work because it's nearly impossible to get childcare for babies and pre-schoolers at the same place at the same time.

'Bognor has only two other nurseries that take under-twos as well as pre-schoolers.'

Arun received 36 individual letters of support for the nursery as well as a petition with 17 signatures. But planning officer Keith Wheway told the committee the nursery would be an inappropriate use in an industrial area.

The council also believed other suitable accommodation was available to enable the business use of the premises to be protected.

'The service may be much needed by the community but this is not sufficient a reason to locate the use at this particular location,' he said. It was wrong because it would take away industrial employment space and cause potentially unsafe conflicts between nursery users and traffic using the industrial estate.

Cllr Elaine Stainton said the health and safety of the children had to take priority. She commented: 'To put this on an industrial estate which I know to be very busy, especially very early in the morning, is wrong.'

Cllr Ricky Bower stated: 'This sort of activity really belongs to a residential area and not an industrial area.'

But Cllr David Biss commented: 'I am very much in favour of this being opened as a childcare facility for the sake of employment and for use by people who are employed in the area.'

Cllr Simon McDougall added that a commonsense approach should prevail. 'We should be working to make this happen rather than objecting to it,' he urged.