A COMPANY which specialises in running day nurseries has won permission to launch an operation for up to 60 children at Northallerton.

Fourteen full-time and six part-time jobs are expected to be created when Warnes Nurseries opens a new building planned for a vacant site at Mount View, on the Standard Way industrial estate.

The principle of siting a day nursery on the industrial estate was established by another company, Kids Care, which won an appeal against refusal of planning permission in August last year for a development taking a similar number of children.

The Kids Care scheme was turned down on the basis that the land should be safeguarded for business or industrial development, new developments should be in places where the need for travel was reduced and that the additional traffic would cause hazards for pedestrians.

An appeal against the decision was supported by a government inspector but Kids Care decided not to take up the permission, saying money was now tied up elsewhere.

Hambleton development control committee, which has conditionally approved the new application by Warnes Nurseries, was told by planning officers that, with some offices already built and other sites available in and around the estate, the nursery would no longer prejudice the availability of development land.

It was also recognised that there were unlikely to be any additional car journeys because most of the nursery customers were expected to be employees of neighbouring companies dropping children off on their way to work.

Mr Bruce Warnes, operations manager of Warnes Nurseries, said the original plans had been redesigned to produce the right environment for the highest quality child care in accordance with recent legislation.

A new set of national standards for the regulation of day care had been introduced in September and responsibility for regulation transferred from social services to Ofsted, which would be rigorous in applying the standards.

Mr Warnes said the redesign was such that children would have more available space than that laid down by legislation and the special needs of pre-school ages would be met. There had been a cost increase of about £120,000 on the original plan.

A large open plan space on the first floor could be used for play when the weather was bad and could also be available to voluntary and community groups such as mothers and toddlers, child minding associations, child care training organisations, new mothers' groups and toy libraries.