A group of mums from Earlsfield is rallying around the Garratt Park Children’s Centre after Wandsworth Council announced a consultation to de-designate it as a children’s centre.

March 18: Wandsworth Council open consultation to "de-designate" two children's centres in borough

The council is consulting on plans to cut £1.3m from its budget by changing services at Garratt Park and Balham Nursery to “signpost” people to other services and to just hold stay-and-play sessions.

Wandsworth Times:

Earlsfield councillor Rachael Stokes, a regular user of the Garratt Park Centre, said: “I am worried by these proposals which I fear could convert the current centre into another private nursery for richer parents, rather than the wonderful, community-wide resource it needs to be.

“Although I use the centre regularly, I was not told about the consultation and nor were several other parents of babies I have spoken to.”

Another mum, Rosalind Polley, carried out her own sessions with centre users, to ask why they valued the service.

In a collation of responses to Ms Polley, users said the consultation was a “sham”, that the centre is a “great support” and begged the council not to limit its opening hours.

One mum said: “The centre is a very important part of the community in Earlsfield It is a place where children can play safely, develop, learn and make friends. For adults, it provides an outstanding resource to learn, share information and make friends. We must keep the centre open and help it flourish even more.”

Ms Polley said she felt she had not been able to promote the consultation, with posters removed encouraging responses, but a spokesman for the council said this was blanket policy regarding posters on their property.

Sadiq Khan, MP for Tooting, said: “We know how important free early years support is both for children’s development and in terms of the support it provides to parents, so I am very concerned that the council is considering leaving Earlsfield without any free provision for children under three.”

The changes would result in about 11 or 12 full-time equivalent jobs going, but five created. Of posts that will be deleted, eight are currently occupied by 10 members of staff who have been consulted on the plans.

A spokesman for the council said: “(We) consulted very extensively with users of all centres last year, as well as the wider community, receiving over 1,200 responses. This helped us to develop further proposals on which we’re now consulting.

“We have directly emailed parents who use the centres, we’ve publicised the consultation in Brightside magazine, which is delivered to all 142,000 homes in the borough and it has also featured prominently on the home page of our website for the past two months, where it will remain on view until the consultation closes" on May 24.

“So far we have received more than 400 additional responses and we would warmly welcome further contributions before May 24. “ The consultation is open until May 24, on www.wandsworth.gov.uk.