Celebrations after Thornaby's early support nursery saved

Stockton Council told parents at the Early Support Nursery, in Thornaby, near Stockton, that it was considering closing the facility, ranked outstanding by Ofsted, last year.

But after a 2,500-signature petition – 2,000 of which came within the first 24 hours – council chief executive Neil Schneider had a tour of the nursery.

Now the council has changed its mind and the nursery will remain open.

The Friends of Early Support charity has raised more than £200,000 over the last 25 years to help equip the nursery, and recently spent £10,000 on a soft play area for the children, aged two to five.

Darren Gunn, chairman of the Friends Group, said: “It is fantastic and the council responded to our concerns very very well. Mr Schneider visited the nursery and he was a very nice man and had a look around.

“The council has listened to us. This is one of not many early support nurseries across the country and we are really lucky to have such a fantastic facility.”

The plans for the future of provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities will be considered by councillors next week.

The council is reviewing all of its provision and has been working towards all children being able to attend a specialist place at a nursery, primary or secondary school close to home.

It meets on Thursday to discuss the plans.

The Council’s Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Councillor Ann McCoy, said: “We were keen to meet with the Friends group to discuss this in more detail and those discussions have been very positive indeed.

“Another stated aim of the new approach is to increase nursery provision across the Borough, and we’ve been looking closely at that too.”

She said local autism charity Daisy Chain and a special school had been inter4ested in providing extra nursery places.

A further report is expected to go to Cabinet in March to determine the next steps in greater detail.