PARENT protesters were today poised to celebrate the axing of controversial plans to "close" nursery schools in East Lancashire and create new centres of excellence.

Lancashire County Councillors were recommended to back down from radical plans to create "super nurseries" and merge some of the county's other stand-alone nurseries with nearby primary schools, after a public outcry.

About 100 parents, children and families last month staged a placard protest at Rockwood nursery school in Burnley, which has 13 of the county's 30 stand-alone nursery schools.

Falling pupil numbers and increased costs brought about the idea from education chiefs at county hall - but an angry response from nursery staff and parents across the county has now forced them into a re-think.

Protests against the plans have been centred around Burnley.

Karen Smithstone, a parent of a child at the Rockwood Nursery in Kingsland Road, Burnley, has been at the forefront of the parents' campaign.

She said: "I am very pleased they appear to have backed down.

"We acknowledge there is a problem with over provision, but what they were planning would have meant the loss of expertise in nursery education."

Local councillor Harry Brooks had described the plans as educational vandalism and said the LCC was intent on destroying something that worked. In Pendle there are five stand-alone nursery schools while there are three in Rossendale, two in Hyndburn and one in the Ribble Valley.

A consultation exercise into the proposals began in January and closed a week ago, and almost 5,000 questionnaires were returned to officials, leaving officers in no doubt where public feelings lie.

The report presented to councillors on the schools and general purposes sub-committee said: "The consultation has generated considerable interest and a significant degree of critical comment.

"Nursery schools in particular have argued, both individually and through their headteachers' federation, that the consultation did not fully project the facts in respect of the quality of provision offered.

"The over-riding theme which emerges from the responses to the consultation is that nursery schools provide a well regarded and high quality early years education that any measures to reduce the provision of nursery schools would lead to poorer educational opportunities for families and children in Lancashire."

Lancashire County Council is now expected to consider alternatives including a scaled down version of the super nurseries plan.

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