ABC Nursery director calls for "urgent" meeting with council planning chiefs
The director of a nursery chain which wants to open a new nursery at Hoo Farm in Telford today called for an “urgent” meeting with council chiefs after the planning application was deferred until after their current lease runs out.
Penny Hustwick, director of ABC Day Nursery Ltd, said she it was a “huge disappointment” to arrive at last week’s Telford & Wrekin Council’s planning meeting to see them vote on their application but to be told it would be deferred.
The councillors had previously asked for a site visit to the land where nursery bosses want to relocate their nursery from their current premises in Wrockwardine.
They have been searching for new rural premises or land after their landlord would not upgrade the building to allow them to renew their lease which was due to end this month. They have until the end of March to move but Mrs Hustwick said following the most recent deferral she would ask the landlord to extend the lease until the end of July.
“When we find the right location for our children of ABC Wrockwardine – which we believe we have already found on land at Hoo Farm – we will close on the Friday and re-open at our new site on the Monday.
“There is no risk of disruption to our children but it is vital to us that we remain in a rural, peaceful location,” Mrs Hustwick, who set up the nursery in Wrockwardine 20 years ago and has since opened three more, said.
“We are not a nursery which would set up on an industrial estate – we found the rural surroundings and it is vital the council understand this.
“When we arrived at last week’s meeting we were given a new paper which stated the council had found us more sustainable premises and this was the first we had heard of this development.
“We have no idea where they are considering for us and as it is our nursery is it vital that the council understands our ethos and what we want, but we want to work with them,” Mrs Hustwick said.
“But we have been given no further details which has now left us in limbo. We do not know when the application has been deferred to, but we need it considered as a priority.
“My staff and the children who enjoy Wrockwardine so much want to know where the nursery will be moving to, but I want to assure them it will be rural and the same environment they enjoy so much now and they will not be left without childcare. I will keep them informed at every stage of the process.”
Mrs Hustwick, who runs the nursery chain with her husband Richard, said: “The children in our care are the number one priority so the location is vital to their learning and enjoyment – the current application would see them enjoy the farm surroundings but have the chance to enjoy the attraction as a learning resource.”
Mrs Hustwick’s other nurseries are in Hollinswood, Hadley, Wrockwardine and the newest premises in Lightmoor and include Outstanding Ofsted reports.
She urged any parents with any queries to call her at ABC Lightmoor.
