CALLS not to shut children’s centres were made at tonight’s Rumworth Area Forum.

Alan Johnson urged local councillors to think again about controversial proposals to axe the centres to save £1.5 million saying they do “valuable work” in helping children and parents.

He said: “I have visited two of the centres and it opened my eyes to what they do.”

Mr Johnson said he was “very concerned” that the council is proposing to close two thirds of the centres.

He said: “It will mean people travelling longer distances, we should not be shutting them.”

Joan Pritchard-Jones told the forum that she was “disappointed” that no real proposals for the future of the centres formed part of the consultation.

She said: “We don’t know what will happen.

“I think the background work should have been done first so people knew what was happening in their area.

“A study of an all party group think children’s centres in the community are the way for forward to support people and enhance the community.”

Cllr Ebrahim Aida said that the consultation was ongoing and urged views to be fed into that so they could be taken into account.

He added the council was forced to carry out a review of the centre in light of the budget cuts it was facing and the authority was trying to find a solution so services provided by centres could still be delivered to people.

He said: “We have put this off and put it off as long as possible because we believe in children’s centres.

Cllr Adia said: “The council is not doing this because it wants to do this.”

Campaigners have held protests outside children's centres in anger of the proposed closures.