FOUR childcare nurseries are to be built in disadvantaged areas of Darlington.

The Neighbourhood Nurseries, for children aged up to four, will provide 211 full daycare places.

The nurseries should be open by March 2004, and will specifically offer care to youngsters from the disadvantaged areas.

Twenty-one nursery places in existing nurseries will also be offered to children from the poorer areas in the next few months.

The new nurseries have already been approved by the Darlington Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership.

They will be in Eastbourne, Northgate, Park East and the Morton Palms areas of the town.

Nurseries at Cockerton West and in the town centre will provide the extra places for youngsters.

The nurseries will be built and opened by a partnership between Darlington Borough Council, voluntary organisations and the private sector.

The new nurseries cannot be built straight away in the disadvantaged areas of town for a number of reasons.

Narrow streets in some areas of the town centre make it difficult for extra parking and there is also limited space for new buildings or conversions to take place.

Many parts of Northgate are also protected or listed which means it takes longer for planning permission to be granted for any new work.

Staff for the new nurseries will come from a variety of sources but there will be an emphasis on trying to recruit parents from the disadvantaged wards where they will be based.

The parents, many of whom are unemployed, will be encouraged to return to work at the nurseries with the promise of childcare if they need it.

Geoff Pennington, director of education for Darlington Borough Council, said: "Parents in the disadvantaged wards will be targeted in particular, with a view to recruiting them into the childcare workforce, ensuring that they are aware of the childcare places available to them once they return to work and the funding streams which can assist with payment of these places."

The plans for the nurseries will be discussed at a meeting of the borough council's Lifelong Learning scrutiny committee when it meets next month.

If the plans are approved work will continue to ensure the new nurseries are opened and the extra places provided by 2004.