Just for the record, there is no oversupply of nursery places in the Forest Hill area - far from the opposite. As I mentioned above in an earlier post, the information TLRA chose to quote as evidence was likely to have been inaccurate as it probably did include term time nurseries and pre-schools rather than full day care. Im afraid any parent around here will be able to support that. Its a similar problem for primary schools and state nursery provision.

There are a handful of full day care facilities in Forest Hill most of which are oversubscribed severely. I waited three years for a place for my child. There are now at least three new nurseries that have opened since summer 2007 which was when we were looking around so the supply has improved however the suppressed demand is still extensive so its still hard to get full time places or part time places that suit your needs. Unfortunately it can also be difficult to get a place as arising places are likely to be taken by siblings. This is why we waited so long for a place and only really got into the pre school part for a year or so however my other children go there now, fortunately for once we are beneficiaries of sibling policies! However the only reason we got that pre school place was that the nursery itself ( not Piplings) overcame considerable opposite to its own expansion plans and managed to extend their provision to incorporate a larger space for pre school children and hence more space for the younger children. That opposition took a similar path to the one Piplings are experiencing with the exception of the covenant issue, with concerns about parking, traffic generation, noise etc. The nursery, wanting to be considerate to its neighbours, bent over backwards to accommodate their wishes, at considerable expense it has to be said however with little acknowledgement. Even though these amendments were in accordance with the planning conditions that they had asked for, many of those neighbours still refused to drop their opposition to the application.

My childs second nursery experienced a lot of unreasonable objection when it increased its hours.
I work in the field of educational expansion and improvement and it has really taken me aback in general how difficult it is to get permission for new schools and nurseries. People can be extremely unreasonable and difficult most particularly around the issue of children and the perceived disruption that they can cause, and the hordes of cars allegedly waiting to drop off and collect. My view about anti-child sentiments are therefore not lightly made- I have seen and head all sorts of vitriol levied against even the smallest expansion proposal. It seems unfortunately to go with the territory. Many people are completely obsessed about parking and traffic impact. They forget that any such impact is fairly temporary and is over within a short period of time - usually when they are out at work anyway. I lived opposite a school for about 8 years. I hardly noticed it was there.

People forget I think that young children make fantastic neighbours- they laugh a lot in play ( great for your blood pressure apparently) - and they sleep for a few hours after lunch. They generally in a nursery situation dont hang around the garden fighting and screaming as thats not tolerated. The parents come twice a day. If cars are used for drop offs and pick ups then its usually very brief. Similarly primary schools, which always get huge objections, are great neighbours as they have short hours and are usually completely closed in school holidays.

I do think there are a lot of unreasonable concerns about children services and this matter exemplifies it all rather well. I think its time that the UN Rights of the Child conventions were rolled out on things like this as hardly has anyone referred to this in all of this debate. And predominantly these children are themselves fairly local to the area if not actually living on the Estate itself. They are also residents- do they not have a voice? Hopefully someone will be representing them at the forthcoming EGM.