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Stornoway, Lewis
Parents launch internet campaign to save threatened nursery 13/4/10
An internet campaign to save the threatened Little Teddies Nursery in Stornoway has been launched.
The facility is the largest nursery in the Western Isles but it will shut at the end of July after a funding crisis. Some 21 staff face redundancy.
Until now the Comhairle and the Western Isles NHS shared its £200,000 losses as it looked after mainly children of staff at both bodies. But the health board’s own financial chaos has resulted in it pulling out of the deal. The council says it cannot afford to bear the cost and has told staff the nursery will finish on July 30th.
The deficit has increased recently because of the extra salary paid by the council under the single status rules combined by a drop in income from cutting places to comply with regulations.
Now supporters are signing up to a Facebook campaign in an attempt to stop the nursery from closing.
Nearly 300 people have joined the Dont let them close Little Teddies Nursery campaign so far.
One mum wrote: “I used this service from 1997 until 2008 and would not have been able to work otherwise. It is the only nursery that opens at 7 am to enable WIHB staff to continue with the 7.15am shift.
“It was so comforting to know that both my daughters were so well looked after to allow me to continue with my career.”
She warned: “If this service closes we could see the health board lose experienced nurses who will not be able to continue to work due to childcare problems.”