Jobs lost as Blackburn nursery closes (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Jobs lost as Blackburn nursery closes

3:47pm Thursday 11th October 2012 in News

A CHILDREN’S nursery, which has been serving families for nearly 20 years, is to shut down.

The Beehive centre, which is on the Furthergate Business Park in Blackburn, was opened in 1993 to help working families at the nearby HMRC tax offices cope with childcare.

But the nursery’s manager, Joanne Church, said funding for the nursery was about to come to an end, meaning up to 14 members of staff could be out of work.

Mrs Church, who has run the nursery for 16 years, said: “HMRC are going to provide childcare within their business now and because we were initially set up for them, they will no longer finance our running costs. We have served a lot of families over the years, we do reach out to quite a lot of people and provide childcare so that they can continue with their careers.

“I am so proud of what has happened here, it is a real wrench for this to come to an end.

“We have got such a great team of staff and they are all now in the same position and looking for new jobs.”

The nursery can look after up to 38 children at any one time and has managed to relocate many of them to three other nurseries in Blackburn.

As part of the deal, six members of staff will be moving with the children, leaving eight potentially unemployed when the centre finally shuts on November 13.

To celebrate Beehive Nursery’s time, Mrs Church, 44, is organising a closing party for past and present families and staff members.

She said: “We want to reach out to all the people that have used us over the years, rather than just fading away.

“It will be nice to get everybody together one last time.”

The party will take place at Beehive Nursery on November 14 at 6.30pm.

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