Play Project: Meeting with Parents

Earlier this week we attended a meeting at the Maida Vale Play Project where local parents had the opportunity to question Council officers from Westminster's Children's Services department.

The Play Project is a much-loved centre which supports local mums and dads to work safe in the knowledge that their children are being looked after once school has finished. The Play Project is due to move from its present location (behind the cafe) to a newly refurbished Pavilion later in the year. Council officers have, however, begun a consultation about its future, because of lower than hoped attendance figures and the fact that there are three local facilities for children within a few hundred metres of each other.

The turnout for the meeting was very high and parents clearly stated their opposition to closure. Before the meeting we had asked Cllr Sarah Richardson, who will take the eventual decision on the future of the Play Project, to come along. She agreed to attend and assured parents that she had heard the message and would look again at the closure proposal. She asked for a couple of weeks to go through the proposal again and then would come back to parents.

We also spoke on behalf of parents to outline our opposition to closure. We are very happy to listen to all the proposals that the Council puts forward and we intend to be a constructive support in this debate. We also know that the Council has a balance to strike. However, we don't believe the interests of parents would be served by closure and we will support local parents all the way in their campaign to save the Play Project.

Alastair, Jan and Lee