MY four year old son attends Jellytots pre-school nursery, and has done so for the past two years.

And I attended the meeting with parents and the management committee of Highfield Hall, on Friday, April 27.

What the main members of the management committee (namely the Chairman, the Treasurer and the Secretary) fail to realise, is that the closure of Jellytots will result in childcare problems for the whole area.

Jellytots currently have 40 children registered for part-time and full-time childcare. There cannot be enough childcare places in the Farnworth area to accommodate such a large number of children at such short notice if Jellytots should shut on June 1, as planned.

Jellytots is the only childcare facility in the area that offers full-time childcare at reasonable prices. The current cost of one day's childcare at Jellytots is £10.50 per day. The cheapest full time nursery place that I have been able to find within a two-mile radius of my home (as I have no car) is a staggering £21 per day.

I returned to work after maternity leave only two weeks ago, and am currently paying to have my baby cared for by a childminder. If I have to pay both for a private nursery place and a childminder, it is quite simply not worth my while working, and I am sure that this is a situation that applies to many other parents.

However, I do not send my son to Jellytots simply because it is cheaper than other options. Doreen and her staff have provided first class childcare for my son and the other children in her care, helping him to become a confident, polite and articulate little boy. As a measure of my confidence in Doreen, I continued to send my son to Jellytots three afternoons per week while I was on maternity leave, despite the cost, as he enjoyed it so much.

Although Jellytots is run as a private business, Doreen is providing a service to a community that badly needs inexpensive childcare, and, as such, I feel that she should be allowed to continue her nursery, despite the problems between herself and the committee.

The committee have arranged a meeting with parents on May 23 to discuss the issue further. However, I found it interesting to note that in the same issue of the Bolton Evening News that the Jellytots story was reported, there was a classified advert stating 'Room available for hire, Farnworth area Suitable for Play Group', followed by the phone number of Mrs Jean Davies, the Chairman of the committee of Highfield Hall. If Mrs Davies is seeking new tenants, it would appear that the committee has made their mind up already that Jellytots will not continue at Highfield Hall after June 1.

Mary Morgan

Lichfield Close

Farnworth, Bolton