PARENTS who were left raging when their youngest son was refused a place at a nursery were celebrating a u-turn by North Lanarkshire Council after the Advertiser backed their fight. Margaret and Cameron Tavendale from Chapelhall applied more than a year ago for a place at Honeywell Nursery for little Fraser who will be three in July. But the young couple were told there was a shortage of places and they would have to look elsewhere. The Tavendales couldn’t believe that the nursery, opened less than two years ago, was at maximum capacity. And they felt the council had seriously underestimated the demand for places and not taken into account the number of new houses being built in Chapelhall. Margaret said: “When I phoned the school, I was told there are only 140 places and they were balloted. The allocation of nursery places has not been increased despite the fact that a significant number of new homes have been built in Chapelhall in recent years. I think it is important however, that there should be sufficient nursery places in the village where we live. “I want my son to go to nursery with the children he will be starting primary school with. I was told that the nearest nurseries were in Calderbank and Petersburn, but I have another child who attends Chapelhall Primary School and it is not feasible for me to drop one child off at Chapelhall Primary and take my younger child to a nursery elsewhere. “This is a new campus which opened less than two years ago so it should be able to cope with the increase in numbers. The council must have known well in advance of new housing developments in Chapelhall and the pressure that this would put on nursery/school places.” The Tavendales were left with nowhere to turn so they called the Advertiser to see if we could help. We immediately phoned the council and put their concerns to education bosses, including the accusation that they underestimated demand. Within days someone had called the family to tell them that a place would be made available for their youngest son. Margaret said: “I am really pleased that this has been sorted out as we wanted our son to go to nursery with the children he is eventually going to primary school with. “We do feel that we shouldn’t have had to fight for it and the places should have been available from the start.” Ray Murphy, Education Officer at North Lanarkshire Council, said: “We know that demand can sometimes exceed availability in some of our nursery establishments and that has certainly been the case at Honeywell Nursery in Chapelhall recently. “As a result, we have looked at how we can best address this issue, and we have now made arrangements to extend the level of early years provision at Honeywell Nursery by incorporating a community room into the nursery accommodation. This will – subject to a variance in our registration with the Care Commission – allow us to accommodate all August entrants as well as those starting nursery in January 2009. “This is a very positive development and the head teacher of St Aloysius Primary will be writing to all parents with children currently on the waiting list for Honeywell Nursery to inform them that a place will be available. It will also include parents at Chapelhall Primary and I am pleased that this will also include parents who had accepted a place at Corpus Christi Nursery and they will have the option of reverting to the original choice of Honeywell Nursery if they wish.” | 
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