Save Our Centre!

A campaign has been launched to fight the proposed closure of Westbury’s children’s centre.

Wiltshire Council has proposed closing six children’s centres across the county, including the White Horse Children’s Centre, located on Eden Vale Road, which provides care services for children. The council has said that they are looking to remove ‘underused buildings’ due to a reduction in funding for family services. 

A recent consultation, which closed on Wednesday 20th March, explored whether the centre is financially viable in its current location, or whether it will need to be relocated to a community building. A final decision will be made by Wiltshire Council later this spring. If the proposals are agreed, the closures will take place from 1st July.

Following the launch of the council’s consultation, users from the White Horse Children’s Centre have started a campaign group to oppose the closure. 

The founder of the group, Nadine Crook, lives in Warminster but started coming to the White Horse Centre when her local children’s centre closed. Nadine says that the group intends to continue the campaign until the committee meets to make a final decision 

She said, “Over the last few years, Wiltshire Council has been pushing services out of the children’s centres into the community. Why? Not because this is the best way of delivering services, but so they can now say the buildings aren’t used enough. Five of the six (public) centres due for closure would be rented out to private nurseries, changing a “liability” into an income. This is short-termism in the extreme. Without a base people can drop into, families in need will not be picked up early on. They will only be picked up by social services much later down the line at crisis point – this will cost far more than running the centres.”

The Mayor of Westbury cllr Ian Cunningham added, “Westbury Children’s Centre is in an area of high deprivation, where people need easy, open access to the staff and facilities such as this. Wiltshire Council has found tens of millions of pounds to fund its flagship campus programme (for example £15.2 million for Melksham campus) but it cannot (or will not) find a relatively small £250,000 annually to fund these six centres. 

“Without these facilities I believe families with difficulties will not be picked up early and social services will have to pick up the much more expensive tab down the line.”

The proposal by Wiltshire Council includes the closure of Westbury, Cricklade, Pewsey, Trowbridge Longfield, Mere and Salisbury City children’s centres. 

The petition to save the White Horse Children’s Centre can be found at: tinyurl. com/y38b3j6v. For more information about the campaign, visit the ‘Save Our Childrens Centres – Westbury’ Facebook page: www.facebook. com/SOCCWestbury/