A TASK group including nursery staff and parents is to look at alternative plans for a shake-up of Lancashire nursery schools after parent power forced councillors to think again.

County councillors yesterday backed down from plans to do away with stand-alone nursery schools in East Lancashire and merge others to create centres of excellence.

But county education chairman Coun Hazel Harding denied there had been a U-turn and claimed the move was just one of several proposals and councillors had decided against it after consultation.

Councillors dropped the radical plans, drawn up last year to tackle falling pupil numbers and high costs, following protests from almost 5,000 staff and parents.

They originally wanted to create "super nurseries" by lumping together nurseries which are not linked to any primary school.

Burnley has 13 such nurseries, Pendle has five, Rossendale has three, Hyndburn has two and the Ribble Valley one.

Parents joined forces to protest against any possible closures almost as soon as the plans were announced, claiming expertise in child care would be lost if nurseries were forced to merge.

Yesterday's meeting of the county's schools and general purposes committee formally decided to withdraw the plans and look at alternative ways of solving the problem of falling rolls and high costs.

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