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Archive => Archived Boards => Local Issues => Topic started by: admin on April 28, 2010, 06:10:41 AM
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28th April 2010
Marple residents fight to save local pre-school
Marple residents will continue their tireless battle to save Treetops preschool at the Marple Area Committee meeting at Marple Library on Wednesday 28th April at 6pm. A grant application that would have saved Treetops by funding new premises has been turned down for seemingly unfounded reasons and campaigners plan to question Council executives to understand why.
Parents and relatives have worked into the night with Treetops leaders and local Councillors over the past two months to explore and develop every possible option to save the preschool before it is forced to close its doors for good at the end of the 2010 summer term due to lack of premises. Committee meetings have regularly run until midnight several nights a week, and members have made available vast amounts of time between work and parenting commitments, so strong is their belief that Treetops must be saved.
Treetops is an exceptional facility, with a fantastic reputation locally, over 20 years’ heritage and a committed staff(including qualified, experienced teachers) providing fantastic care and early years education for the children of over 50 Marple families at any one time.
Dr Jo Black, whose daughter attends Treetops, says of the setting, “Treetops is a fantastic local facility. The staff team is very stable and holds a wealth of experience, and the levels of staffing and amount of input from the qualified teaching staff are second to none. They handle a range of educational and emotional needs with great skill and sensitivity, and put the children's wellbeing and development at the heart of what they do - we parents believe that this is only possible in a 'not for profit' facility.”
Leaders of Treetops, a charitable organisation, first became aware that the facility was under threat in September 2008 when the Glengarth building where it is housed was bought from Mencap by a local businessman. The favourable lease agreed with Mencap will expire in August 2010, after which the current landlord wishes to significantly increase the rent, putting it beyond Treetops’ reach. The future term of lease would also be reduced, meaning that investment in maintaining and improving facilities could not be deemed viable.
At this stage Stockport Council encouraged the pre-school to put in a bid for investment to help buy the building and were highly optimistic about its chances success. The bid cost over £3,000 and significant amounts of time were given voluntarily by staff and their families to prepare the application. Given the Council’s initial support, the decision to turn it down on the grounds that the level of investment requested was too high and the money would be better spent elsewhere in the borough, was unexpected.
Parents and families got involved in February 2010 when Treetops announced to them that it would be closing. Since then the Parents’ Action Group have been passionately focused on exploring countless options to save the facility. A huge amount of time has been spent seeking potential affordable new premises, exploring in detail the financial and practical viability of the best option at Shepley Lane and formulating the latest grant application. This work was spurred on by more encouragement and assurances about the availability of funds from the local council who visited the premises and gave an initial positive response. Again unexpectedly, this latest bid has been rejected for the seemingly unfounded reason that it is an Industrial Estate, despite the fact the area is surrounded by fields and the canal.
Time has run out to find alternative new premises in time for the new school year in September 2010. With Peacefield pre-school having closed down and The Dale and All Saints facing premises battles, pre-school care in Marple is seriously under threat. This could affect the ability of parents in the area to continue or return to work.
Throughout the process, Liberal Democrat Councillors Chris Baker and Craig Wright with Andrew Stunell MP have lent great support and advice to the Parents’ Action Group, with Chris Baker sitting on the Committee.
Committee member and local Chartered Accountant Kate Scott, who wrote the business plan and financial forecasts for the latest application, commented “The reasons the council have given for rejecting the bid just don’t seem strong enough, particularly given their initial verbal support of our application and knowledge of the huge amount of time we have all volunteered to the process. We suspect an alternative agenda and are determined to get to the bottom of this at the Marple Area Committee meeting. We haven’t come this far to give up without a fight.”
She continued “We are hugely indebted to our local Liberal Democrat representatives for their hands-on help in negotiating this complicated process. It’s great to see local politics in action”
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See ‘Additional Facts’ appendix.
For further information:
Kate Scott, Committee Member
Tel: 07855 785 450
Email: kate@scottaccounts.co.uk
Twitter: @marplepreschool
Facebook group: Save Our Marple Preschools!
Available on request:
Full business plan
Draft plans for Shepley Lane premises
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Additional facts
The current premises
Treetops Preschool operates from Glengarth Evening Centre, Station Road, Marple. It is an educational preschool for children from 2 years 9 months to school age. Established for over 20 years, it has never had to advertise and has relied on parent recommendations to fill its registration capacity.
The Glengarth building was historically owned by the Mencap charity. As Mencap is a charity it was happy to charge Treetops a nominal rent of £5,600 per annum including utilities for the 84 sq m playroom, toilets and office. A local businessman (Paul Summers of Summers & Co Chartered Accountants) purchased the Glengarth building from Mencap in September 2008. Upon expiry of the current lease in August 2010, the new landlord wishes to charge a commercial rent of £25k per annum for the facility, committed on a five year lease.
The search for new premises
Commercial premises in central Marple are unaffordable to a charity, and there is a lack of available community premises which presented the Parents’ Action Group with significant barriers when the search first began. All of the local church halls, scout huts, guide huts, and sporting venues were approached. Nowhere in Marple was able to offer 8am-4pm facilities for the exclusive use of Treetops with the necessary CRB compliance, outdoor space and storage facilities. The Action Group was delighted to find a commercial unit on Shepley Lane in Marple, which it felt met the criteria for the provision of permanent premises for Treetops.
The proposed new premises
The premises at Shepley Lane is a large commercial unit offering 2000 square feet of accommodation over a large open plan ground floor area and three office / classrooms to the first floor. Its location offers parking outside the unit. There is also pedestrian access from the large Goyt Mill car park. The landlord agreed to mark out a pedestrian lane on the pavement for pedestrians accessing the setting in this way (a copy of his letter confirming this is available upon request).
Treetops finalised the agreement of acceptable terms with the Shepley Lane premises landlord in March and proceeded to attempt to secure Council funding as soon as possible in order to reassure staff and parents at the earliest opportunity of the continuance of the setting. The new premises needed to open in September 2010. In order to do this, the capital improvement works would need to commence by the start of June 2010 at the latest in order to complete the necessary works in time to make the removals during August 2010.
Preliminary prudent financial forecasts indicated that the new setting would be self-sustaining, generating an annual surplus.
The grant application for the capital sum of £88,700.00 from Stockport Council was submitted on 1st April to fund the necessary adaptations to the proposed premises. This was turned down on 16th April on the grounds of the access arrangements being via a pavement to the front of Wright Hire, which was considered undesirable. The Action Group therefore arranged alternative access via an exclusively pedestrian path to the rear of the unit. The bid was again rejected on the grounds of pollution on the estate.
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I was present at a meeting at Tree Tops and could not understand why the parents were convinced by the two councillors who they had invited to attend that it would be a good idea not to continue to meet as a group of concerned parents ? but felt it would be better to just invite one parent to his home to discuss the matter further. I was shocked and questioned their reason's behind not using the power of the group to bring about action. I suggested various tactics and solutions but both councillors appeared not to want to listen to any suggestion that would highlight the loss of such a local resource and a once lovely building. The parents were also told by the councillors that it would not benefit their cause to go to the local press that it would do more harm than good ??? I came away from the meeting feeling that the parents had been given all the wrong information and it is MY OPINION that to have suggested the parents did not highlight the plight of Tree Tops to the press or local interested parents has allowed time for some form of planning application to go through smoothly. I am not suggesting that the councillors did this knowingly but an opportunity in MY OPINION was lost on that first night the parents got together at Tree Tops as a motivated, concerned group of parents. I feel that if the parents had not invited the councillors that night and had continued as a group of parents to feel the injustice and nonsense in allowing this resource to close they would have in MY OPINION had a very different outcome than the one they have now been left with, having been convinced that their way was not really the right way.
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What happened with St Paul's offer of their old school room ??? I am sure that we could ask local tradesmen to offer their labour at a very reduced rate to enable a much needed local resource to continue in the area, near I might add to Ludworth its feeder school.
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Has anyone investigated to opportunity to do something with Marple's Bands, who have recently recieved planning permission to extend and upgrade the park keeper's cottage in Memorial Park to a band practice room? The bands will only be using it at evenings and weekends and it could probably be used for a nursery or similar during the daytime.
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The question needs to be asked as to why some of the money the authority will make from the sale of the peacefield school site can not be use to fund Tree Tops. Once again this was a question I asked at the first meeting but it was dismissed by the two councillors but they did say that there would possibly be some money from that sale. So why is it not being put back into education rather than into the councils coffers and why was my suggestion to invite Vicky Packman (education SMBC) to meet informally with the parents dismissed completely out of hand by the two councillors present. I smell a seventeen windows here >:( but that's just MY OPINION :o
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Having seen the initial budget for the rebuild of Rose Hill Primary School, estimated cost £7.2m, approx £4.5m was from central government funding (PCIP) the rest was to be made up from the monies raised from the sale of peacefield and the dale sites. So I'm guessing there isn't any spare money from this pot of money for Treetops? I understand that the council are considering peacefield as some allotment plots????
As far as SMBC go, I would not believe a word they say and that they have their own agenda and don't wont anybody/anything to get in there way -- hence no press -- my opinion.
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I agree with your opinion
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IK agree too.. if any sort of politician says dont do that it wont do you any good... do the opposite! THey just mean it wont do THEM any good!
still a few days left to make some noise.. ring the newspapers and radio stations...
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Hi All
Thanks for interest. I am a member of the Treetops Parents' Action Group.
Unfortunately the St Pauls venue is not possible due to the fact that the area being offered to Treetops is in the basement. There is no possibility to install toilets in the basement and Treetops would therefore have to share the ground floor toilets with other users of the church hall. Child safety laws will not allow the shared use of toilets with anybody who is not CRB checked.
We investigated the shared use of the pavillion at Marple Memorial Park with the band very early on in our investigations. Unfortunately the room was not big enough and the sound proofing of it for the purposes of the band meant that it would have no natural light for the purposes of the preschool. I did not visit it myself but other members of the Action Group did and it was considered unsuitable.
We are meeting council officers at the alternative Goyt Mill premises this afternoon to persuade them that their access objections are overcome by this alternative unit.
We have a team of tradesmen parents of current Treetops children who are all ready to go if we can get the premises!
Thanks
Kate Scott
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Regarding the press, the story is supposed to be in the Stockport Express today.
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This is something i've been thinking about recently so i'm just wondering what the other good folk of Marple think. I'm not pretending to know all the details. I do know however that Glengarth has been boarded up for some time.
I'm sure most know but for those who don't Glengarth is a late Victorian house on Station Road on the corner of Hollins Green and opposite the junction of Manor Hill Road. It was extended at the back some time in the 60s/70s at a guess to function as a multi purpose facility. This included a special needs club and a toddlers playgroup which I attended once upon a time. All of these facilities have now shut down and the building lies uninhabited with some windows boarded up and others which have been smashed.
I understand it is owned by a building contractor. Building contractors have a habit of buying old buildings then letting them go derilect, declaring them dangerous and then knocking them down. I can well imagine this happening to Glengarth as it did to the house on the opposite side of Hollins Green some ten years ago. The flats along side it aren't offensive. They have done a fair job of blending them in with the style of the houses either side unlike the monstrous lego flats where Norbury Smithy once stood.
SO do we care? Its one of Marple's surviving Victorian buildings. There are others similar houses on the same stretch. I could be wrong but I don't think its listed. The back end is pretty grotty. Function 60s/70s concrete. I don't really mind what happens to that bit.
Should it be saved?
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Self correction. The back end isn't concrete. It's red brick too. Just functional and not very exciting
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The house known as 'Glengarth', 64 Station Road, was probably built around 1900as were two other similar houses, 1897 & 1904.
It was owned and used by Mencap who submitted a planning application around 2005 to SMBC which was turned down.
It was bought in 2008 by a married couple who live in Marple, and as far as I know he is not a builder.
Perhaps Mark could merge this with the 'Treetops' topic ! (Done - Admin)
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The building has just gone on sale again via Edward Mellor. Price on application.
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Surely glengarth would benefit by being used rather than its current state. if it was changed this must benefit the local community?
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It has benefited property developers to be allowed to get into that state !!!! Remember the Bowling Green and its mysterious fire ? Oh yes and the Jolly Sailor's mysterious fire when neighbours saw adults running away when it was a blaze If the Jolly Sailor had not set on fire then it could not have been demolished as it had a colony of bats residing there, but before the halt to the demolishment of the pub got the go ahead due to the resident bats, it too had a fire :-\ Glad I don't live near Glengarth :-X but there again its near to the fire station :-X