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Flashback: Marchers in Witney

AN "11th hour" promise of help has been made to a Witney nursery facing closure.

About 50 parents and children, along with staff from the town's Abacus nursery, paraded through the town with banners to the district council offices on Monday afternoon.

Today, Louise Chapman, the county council's cabinet member for children and young families, said she was trying to fix a short-term home for Abacus.

The nursery has been given a July 4 deadline to move from its home for the last nine years following the planning go-ahead for a £30.5m redevelopment of the Witney campus of Abingdon and Witney College.

Mrs Chapman, who met the protesters, said: "There are several options, one of them the artificial turf pitch site at Gordon Way in Witney. We are talking temporary accommodation and then, perhaps, to find a long-term answer. The first thing is that we don't want to lose their valuable service to the community."

Abacus caters for 90 children with nursery, after-school and holiday care. It has 15 staff and earlier this year received an "outstanding" report by Ofsted inspectors.

Claire Taylor, the nursery's joint manager, said they are pinning their hopes on a short extension of their deadline at the campus site and a temporary move to Gordon Way.

"It is all at the 11th hour and nothing is yet set in stone, we are taking each day as it comes. At the moment, the promises are just verbal," she said.

"We hope to have a meeting in the next week or so to get definite proposals."

6:27pm Tuesday 20th May 2008

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