Progress so far
Premises
- History has shown that it is unlikely that we will find a suitable property to buy / let and convert meet the requirements of the nursery. For the moment, we have agreed to focus on opportunities to buy / lease land locally and create a purpose-built nursery (in a modular / portacabin-style building which could be either leased or bought and erected in a matter of weeks)
Funding
- We have begun to explore different options to fund a building project of this kind. We believe that there may also be a case for exploring alternative operating models which might provide access to a wider range of funding options.
Activity to date
- Currently the action group is split into 2 groups – Research and Communication. The research group is exploring premises and funding options, whilst the communication group has been focused on making the wider community aware of our aims as a group and the progress we are making. Over the last few months, representatives of both groups have also been involved in meetings with a number of local representatives:
| Month | Date | Meeting |
| September | 8 | Flagged issue at Community Council Meeting |
| September | 15 | Lorna Murray, Early Years Childcare Manager, SBC |
| September | 16 | Catriona Bhatia, Local Councillor |
| September | 18 | Willie Archibald, Local Councillor |
| September | 19 | Neil Calvert, Local Councillor |
| September | 30 | Jeremy Purvis, MSP |
| October | 2 | Care Commission |
| October | 7 | Asked Community Council for support with Tag Hut |
| October | 28 | Council Executive Meeting |
| October | 30 | Council Planning Department |
| November | 3 | Catriona Bhatia and Jeremy Purvis |
| November | 18 | Fran Swift, The Bridge |
Minutes of meetings can be found on the documents page.
Promising progress
We have researched a whole range of options, and currently have 2 front runners:
Our local councillors and MSP are working together to back a proposal to build a temporary structure on the old ‘tag hut site’, and a longer-term commitment to a permanent site for the nursery once the new school is built. The Council’s Executive Committee met on October 28th to consider the feasibility of this option and agreed to offer the Village Nursery a 5 year lease (with a 3 year break clause). It is now up to the nursery (supported by the action group) to apply for planning consent and fund the lease / purchase of a temporary building and the preparation of the site. For details of where we are with this, please see the 'Next Steps' table in the 'Documents' section
The second possibility may be to lease a piece of land from the Broomlee Centre. A meeting with Jeremy Purvis MSP and senior representatives of the centre is scheduled to take place in early December.