Nursery plan for former offenders’ day centre
A FORMER youth offenders’ day centre will be transformed into a nursery creating up to 15 new jobs.
Little Brook Children’s Nursery, which already operates a location on Blackburn Road in Great Harwood, will be opening a new site in Accrington.
Work to convert the site, on Blake Street in Accrington, is due to begin at the end of this month.
While the new site still needs to be registered with Ofsted, management at the nursery hope to open it by May of this year.
Dawn Hartley, managing director at Little Brook, says the expansion will create between 13 and 15 new jobs, while offering between 60-70 nursery places which, she says, are always in high demand.
Dawn, who has 12 years experience of running nurseries, said: “We’re expecting there to be high demand - we already run a site in Great Harwood, and people travel from all over the area.
“We don’t always advertise all of the spaces because they are filled as soon as they become free.”
Dawn says she has been looking to expand for a number of years, and found the building after spending hours trawling the internet.
She said: “It’s hard to find a new site, but this is a good location. It’s all on one level, which is important for accessibility and it has plenty of car parking space.”
Two of the existing 16 car parking spaces will be used to create an outdoor play area for the children.
Dawn worked in the construction industry before starting her own childcare business as she thought she could improve the existing offering.
She said: “I had to travel far for childcare. I knew what good childcare could be. Traditionally, we were working with a lot of parents who worked shifts, so began with flexibility in mind.”
With opening hours of 7.30am to 6pm from Monday to Friday, Dawn aims to offer parents high quality childcare at an affordable price.
A planning application was initially submitted to Hyndburn council, but later withdrawn, as Dawn was informed that she did not need permission.
The conversion of the site into a new nursery can take place without planning permission as, according to the council planning rules, the buildings are in the same usage category.