THE County Council has been accused of drawing up secret plans to cut back on the number of nursery schools in the district.

An examination of nursery school provision by the Education Committee has revealed that, across the county, the distribution of nurseries is very uneven.

They plan to build new nursery centres or add nursery care to existing primary schools which means areas like Lancaster, which has a sizable number of existing nurseries, could lose out in the shake up.

Local schools which could face the axe are said to be Greaves Park and Willow Lane.

Skerton and Bulk wards have been earmarked as areas which could be the locations for the new nursery centres but there is considerable concern for local centres of pre-school education. Said Jon Barry: "I'm very concerned that Willow Nursery could be closed. These schools provide excellent facilities which are much valued by the community. We should not be sacrificing quality for penny pinching cuts. I understand it's still very early in the day but they often bring in these sort of cuts under the guise of improving the service."

Tory education spokesman, County Cllr Bill Thornton said: "Nursery schools had already been sent questionnaires inviting them to choose voluntary redundancy or transfer to other posts with instructions to reply by December 17.

"Do you call that consultation?"

He added: "I accept that a review of nursery provision was overdue but there are deprived children in all districts of Lancashire who would benefit from pre-school education.

"The proposals being presented are clearly cuts by stealth in Labour's desperate need to save money."

A county council spokesman said: "The review will be far reaching and we will be listening closely to the views of parents and staff at our existing excellent nursery schools."

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