Manager of Mudeford Wood Pre-school says order to leave from Mudeford Community Trust is ‘very upsetting’

THE manager of a pre-school which is being kicked off the site where it has been for 37 years has said the decision is “very upsetting”.

Emily Hernon runs Mudeford Wood Pre-school, which has been given its marching orders from the community centre in a row over health and safety.

The centre is run by Mudeford Community Trust, for which Christchurch mayor Paul Hilliard is treasurer.

The charity has demanded the pre-school leave by July next year after claiming it had breached health and safety rules by leaving a playhouse out overnight.

A furious Emily said: “We pay £4,500 a month to hire our room. That is triple what most pre-schools pay.

“What landlord would want to evict a good tenant who pays their bills on time – in the hope of finding one who has been as reliable as we have for over three decades?

“The decision is very upsetting.”

This week local MP Sir Christopher Chope visited the pre-school to speak to angry staff and parents.

Emily said: “I think he struggled, like we do, as to why you would get rid of a good tenant who has always paid their bills on time.

She said the relationship with the trust deteriorated after an extension for the pre-school was opened in 2018.

Emily revealed: “It was paid for by a grant to us of £171,500 from the Department of Education, to which we added £15,000 of our own money.

“The rest came from grants to the trust.

“Our new room was never designed as a pack-away one, but since then the trust has continually found fault.

““The room only has one slim cupboard for our equipment. We can’t fit all of it in but only one or two items are normally left out.

“At night the room is hired out for an hour or two for exercise classes and suchlike. But it’s not every night and they certainly don’t pay the same high hire rate that we do.

“The playhouse could easily have been moved. Last year an Ofsted inspector gave us a ‘good’ rating and did not raise any health and safety concerns.”

BCP Council owns the building on Pipers Drive, but the trust has a 25-year lease. The pre-school has 80 pupils and a long waiting list.

Emily said: “The parents are very upset and are being fantastically supportive, some of them have come in with newborns to sign them up saying ‘I know you will still be here’.”

She said part of the problem was the pre-school does not have a long-term contract with the charity.

Emily revealed: “It means the trust can just get rid of us. BCP Council are being very supportive and are helping us to find another location. They certainly don’t want us to close.

“Not that we have any intention of doing so. We are hoping a resolution can be found and the charity sees sense, but if not we will find somewhere else.”

In a statement posted on their website the trust said the school had for a “number of years” been “continually breaching statutory fire and health and safety regulations”.

It said it had issued “many verbal and written warnings” about non-compliance.

The trust said its decision was “non-negotiable and irrevocable” adding that the school has “consistently abused its trust” and “their attitude of entitlement and misrepresentation of facts has been unhelpful”.

It said it now intended to find a “superior service” pre-school or similar to hire the room all year round.

The trust claimed the pre-school’s failure to adhere to rules had placed the “centre at risk of closure.”

Emily said she found the statement “defamatory” adding: “It has upset many staff and parents and a lot of it is simply untrue.”

Parent Alex Kyrillou has launched a petition to save the pre-school which his sons attend.

He said that the decision to order it to leave “baffles comprehension”.

To sign the petition visit: https://bit.ly/4erfial