The Story So Far...
By Janette Blake, Owner of the Village Nursery
It’s 14 years since I opened the Village Nursery in West Linton. From the beginning, I was motivated by a desire to create a happy, loving and caring environment for local children. Over the years, I have been lucky to be supported by a loyal and very dedicated team, and I am proud of what we have achieved together. Running the nursery has always been very fulfilling and rewarding and my love of working with children remains undiminished.
For some time now, however, we have been living with a degree of uncertainly about the future of the nursery premises, and I have worked hard, over a number of years, to find suitable alternative accommodation within the village. This has proved difficult to secure. In August this year, I was informed that the lease on the Village Nursery’s premises would be terminated in October 2009 to allow the Old Church Hall to be made available for a range of Church and Community uses. With no prospect of any suitable accommodation becoming available, I concluded with great sadness that there was no alternative but to close the nursery.
Soon after the closure of the nursery was announced, concerned parents formed an action group to work with us to try to explore options that would enable nursery provision to continue in the village.
I have been overwhelmed by the level of support from parents and the local community, and I want to do whatever I can to help them in their efforts to avert the closure of the nursery. I had anticipated that I would be definitely asking the church to agree an amended lease for the premises until the end of April 2009 (as I felt that the nursery would be unable to retain sufficient staff and/or children for a full year). However I have now written to the Kirk Session and agreed to accept their offer to continue the nursery lease for a year in October, to allow the parents’ action group time to find a solution.
This website has been set up to keep everyone in the community up to date with the progress that is being made by the nursery and the action group – and to ask for practical help along the way.
I know that I speak for everyone involved in the nursery when I say how much we appreciate all the support you have given us so far. I hope that our combined energies will enable us to arrive at a positive outcome – for the children and for the nursery staff.