THE decision to close Bolton’s final council-run nursery will again be debated after the authority was accused of ‘ignoring the wishes of the majority of councillors’ on the matter.

Last month, the council decided to axe Harvey Nursery, in Shaw Street, Great Lever, with closure set for next August.

The decision will lead to the loss of 15 full-time posts and the relocation of around 50 children.

Opposition Labour councillors ‘called-in’ the decision and won a motion at a children’s scrutiny committee meeting, which means the matter will be debated at full council early next year.

The council’s reasoning for the decision to close the nursery is that it needed 74 per cent capacity to be financially viable and has never recently achieved more than 52 per cent capacity.

They said there was adequate provision for child care in the private sector and that closure would save around £104,000 per year for council taxpayers in Bolton.

Labour leader Nick Peel told the a scrutiny committee it was his group’s belief not all options had been explored to examine whether the nursery could remain open.

He said: “There were no other options in the report other than closure. No options on how the council could help this nursery.

“The minority Conservative administration clearly have little interest in a council-run facility.

“I contend that even if it was financially viable there would be little interest in keeping it in house.

“They want to get rid of it, ‘out of sight, out of mind’. It’s an intransigent attitude that’s sunk into this Conservative cabinet.

“Full council has previously given on two occasions clear instructions to re-start a group to look at solutions for the nursery.

“They choose to ignore the wishes of the majority of councillors, some of whom are signatories to the minority Conservative administration who keep them in power.

“All we are asking is to give the nursery a fighting chance. To allow them to fight for their future.”

Cllr Madeline Murray said the decision to close was ‘disgraceful’ and there had been childcare provision on the site for ‘at least 80 years’.

Conservative Cllr John Walsh said subsidising nursery places in just one area of the borough was not ‘equitable’ or fair.

He said: “Why are we not subsidising children and deficits in other inner urban areas like Tongue or in Halliwell or in Crompton or in many other wards.”

Cllr Stuart Hartigan said: “Councils generally aren’t good at running private businesses.

“To compare this with private nurseries, they are largely staffed with 18 to 20-year-olds who are cheap.

“They won’t get paid holidays, they won’t get that kind of stuff.

“This nursery hasn’t got a level playing field against those competitors. Its costs are sky high.”

Councillors on the committee voted in favour of the motion, calling on the cabinet member for children’s services, Cllr Anne Galloway. to re-think the decision and ensuring full council will examine the matter in January.