PARENTS of dozens of Rossendale toddlers have been left in the dark after the closure of a nursery.

Dummies and Diapers, based in Goodshaw Avenue in Crawshawbooth, shut its doors before Christmas just a week after moving to a temporary location in Rawtenstall.

Some parents claim they paid hundreds of pounds for nursery sessions that had not taken place because of the sudden closure.

The nursery moved to the former Training 2000 building in Crankshaw Street on December 10 after a burst pipe at its Goodshaw Avenue home left it water damaged and not up to standard.

But parents who turned up at the gates on December 17 found them locked.

One Crawshawbooth mum, who did not want to be named, said she was shocked and had taken a big financial hit to enlist her two-year-old daughter in an alternative nursery.

She said: “We pay the childcare fees up front at the beginning of the month and I paid around £200 for the weeks that Dummies and Diapers was closed.

“It’s not ideal at Christmas time. I’m lucky because I’ve managed to find her a different nursery and I wasn’t working so I could look after her, but I’ve had to pay a deposit up front.

“I can’t imagine how parents who were working coped.

“We got a letter from the nursery on December 21 saying that it had ceased to trade due to unforeseen circumstances. Other than that there has been nothing.”

In March the nursery changed its name from Goodshaw Kindergarten and Private Nursery.

Ofsted, the education regulator, said that although they were aware that the nursery had closed, it was not as a result of any action taken by them.

Lancashire County Council said it was also aware of closure but that it had taken no action.

Nobody was available for comment at Dummies and Diapers’ registered address in Myrtle Street, Bolton, yesterday.