A FARM visitor attraction has announced plans to open a new nursery catering for 100 children.

Adventure Valley, based in Brasside, on the outskirts of Durham, has submitted plans to convert one of its building into a nursery.

If approved, the nursery would be run by Kids Play Limited but would be integrated with Adventure Valley to provide a farm-based setting for learning.

They say the nursery would have space for up to 100 children and would operate between 7.30am and 6.30pm, employing 30 full-time and 30 part-time educators and other members of staff.

The company already operates a number of other nurseries in similar settings elsewhere in the country.

Adventure Valley, which is based at Union Hall Farm, says the scheme will reduce its seasonality, make it more resilient and mean it can retain more staff out of season as well as catering for a need for extra nursery spaces in the city.

Their application to Durham County Council says: “At the heart of the issue, and one of the main reasons why the nursery has been proposed, is the severe fluctuation in levels of business between school holidays and schooldays.

“The nursery will create activity on site when the farm is normally at its quietest, utilising the existing infrastructure and allowing for the farm to provide more consistent employment.”

The development would include demolishing existing buildings, one of which is currently used for indoor roller skating, and replacing them with a “sympathetic agricultural-style barn building”, more in keeping with Union Hall Farm.