Passionate pleas to save South Street Nursery from closure

South Street Nursery meeting

People spoke passionately about South Street Nursery and pleaded for it to stay open at a public meeting organised following Rochdale Borough Council's proposal to close the "outstanding" nursery.

Education expert Zafar Khan said: “When pupils from South Street go to primary school they are a few months ahead of the other children, that shows you the hard work that the teachers and staff do.

“When there are efficiency cuts, the first thing that suffers is quality. That’s exactly what will happen if South Street closes.”

Muhammad Mushtaq, chairman of Bilal Mosque Committee, said: “We are all here to acknowledge, appreciate and say thank you to South Street and in return the minimum we can do is ask the council to save the nursery.”

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk, who has backed the camapign against closure, described the nursery as an “asset to the community” and an “outstanding nursery”. He said: “I hope that today’s meeting will go a long way to show just how much public support there is behind this fantastic nursery and its staff.”

However, when Mr Danczuk instructed those in attendance to question Conservative Councillor Shefali Ahmed, who was at the meeting, as to why the Conservative government was cutting so much money from local councils, tensions rose.

Taken aback by the comments, Councillor Ahmed asked why Mr Danczuk was getting political and stated that she had not spoken throughout the meeting.

Residents jumped to Councillor Ahmed’s defence and asked why Mr Danczuk made the "unnecessary comments" to Councillor Ahmed.

At this point, Mr Danczuk abruptly left the meeting, though he had earlier made it clear that he had to leave early.

Mina Ali, who spoke passionately about the nursery during the meeting, questioned Mr Danczuk’s behaviour and said: “That was disgusting the way he spoke to her. Why did he need to do that? You don’t talk to women like that. He needs to apologise.”

Others in attendance also questioned Mr Danczuk’s behaviour and why he "rudely" left without "even giving an apology to Councillor Ahmed".

Councillor Ahmed said: “I want a written apology. I sat quietly throughout the whole meeting and was in attendance to support the residents, staff and nursery. There was no need for it to turn political.”

Ms Ali added: “Councillor Shefali and Farooq Ahmed have both been great in supporting us and they aren’t even our local councillors. No one else has bothered to turn up.”

Those in attendance put their name to an open letter to the council cabinet stressing in the "strongest possible terms opposition to the proposed closure of South Street Nursery".

It is understood that Rochdale Council Cabinet will make their final decision on whether or not to close the nursery at a meeting on 22 January.