Kingsclere toddler group's new home

Kingsclere pre school forced to seek new site for toddler session

A KINGSCLERE pre-school has become so desperate for space that it is preparing to move its toddler group session into a Methodist church today (Friday March 4).

The Busy Bees pre-school, which currently meets at the Scout hut, Strokins Road, is moving its Wednesday morning toddler sessions to the Methodist church, George Street, to free up space for a new pre-school session at the

Scout hut.

This will allow the pre-school – a registered charity that was graded outstanding in all 14 categories of its latest Ofsted report – to open every day of the week, from 9am until 3pm.

Total funding for a new youth centre building on the Holding Field in the village, which it is planned would house the pre-school, has not yet been secured.

The manager of Busy Bees, Maria Meredith, is a committee member of the registered charity, the Young People's Centre, which is seeking funds for the proposed building.

This week she confirmed that trustees of the charity were still trying to secure replacement funds for a £275,000 Private, Voluntary and Independent government grant that was withdrawn after last autumn's spending review.

The grant would have covered more than half the cost of building the proposed £524,000 youth centre, which would also house a youth club and football changing facilities.

However, the committee has not given up hope and, with the end of the financial year approaching, Mrs Meredith said that the outcome of decisions on replacement grants it had since applied for should soon be known.

Other funds secured for the project have been unaffected by the Government's decision, although Kingsclere Parish Council, the owners of the Holding Field site, wrote to the committee last year to inform them that work could not begin on the building until replacement funding had been

secured.

Meanwhile, Mrs Meredith said that the committee was looking for a parttime youth worker, using a yet-to-be calculated amount of the project's existing funds.

The opening session of Busy Bees' toddler group in the Methodist church

will be free of charge and will take place from 9am to 11am today (Friday March 3), with refreshments.

Cup cakes will also be on sale, with child-relevant stalls on offer for parents.