Hull North MP to meet McMillan Daycare campaigners

On Monday (6 June), Hull North MP Diana Johnson will visit McMillan Daycare in North Hull to meet parents campaigning against the loss of the outstanding nursery.

The McMillan Daycare nursery is due to close as part of the cuts to services provided in children's centres agreed by the previous Lib Dem Council before it was ejected by Hull voters on 5 May.

Hull is suffering a cut in the Early Intervention Grant of £70 per child from the Coalition Government. This compares to a cut of only £30 per child in Kingston upon Thames. In response to the Government's funding cuts, Hull's previous Lib Dem Council agreed in February to cut the local Sure Start budget by 55%, from £9.9m to £4.4m, with children's services being cut by 32% overall. Lib Dem councillors voted down a Labour bid to protect key services.

While Nick Clegg was claiming that no Lib Dem Council was closing a children's centre, Lib Dems in Hull were mothballing 13 of our 20 children's centres. This meant keeping the buildings nominally open but axing services provided in them, such as McMillan Daycare, and paying to make staff redundant.

Hull Labour Council Leader Steve Brady has also visited the McMillan Daycare nursery to listen to the view of service users and staff. Labour will be proposing an emergency Council Budget later this month.

Diana Johnson MP is to present the petition to save the nursery to Parliament. Lib Dem and Tory MPs recently voted down an attempt by Labour MPs in the House of Commons to protect children's centres from cuts to the frontline services that they provide.

Hull's three Labour MPs met senior Hull City Council officers responsible for children's services on Friday (3 June) to discuss a range issues, including the future of McMillan Daycare.

Diana Johnson MP said: "It will be a privilege to meet local mums and dads working to save McMillan Daycare nursery and hear all about this excellent service.

"I hope to present the McMillan Daycare petition to Parliament as part of the national campaign to highlight broken promises on children's centres made by the Tories and Lib Dems.

"Sure Start children's services are vital for giving children the best start in life and in helping parents seek work.

"It is clear that the repeated claim by Coalition Ministers that Government funding is sufficient not to cut children's centre services is simply inaccurate. It would appear that even the previous Lib Dem Council did not believe this claim, judging by their plans to mothball 13 out of 20 children's centres in Hull."

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