PARENTS are campaigning to stop a college closing its nursery.

Oxford and Cherwell Valley College wants to shut down the Little Scholars Day Nursery on its Oxpens Road campus to save money but the move has taken families by surprise.

Fifteen nursery staff face redundancy, although it is understood some could be offered alternative posts within the college.

Managers have told parents it will close on July 23 because of rising costs and a forecast budget deficit of more than £100,000.

Linda Pialek, 30, and her husband Nick, 29, have three children at the nursery and they have not yet found any alternative places for their children Mia, four, Lina, two, and Lukas, one.

Mrs Pialek, who works for Oxford University, said: “It is going to be extremely difficult to find nursery places for our children at such short notice.

“None of the parents expected this to happen.

“In March we were told that the college would refurbish the inside and outside of the nursery building and a new assistant manager was hired.

“I also understand that about £20,000 was spent earlier this year on new windows.

“The nursery is licensed for about 60 children and has been running at full capacity.

“The college says that 20 children are due to leave in August, but I think the places would have been taken up because other nurseries have lots of children on their waiting lists.”

She added: “We would like the college to work with parents to review its decision to close and that would at least give us some extra time to look for alternative places.

“We want the college to try to find a solution to keep the nursery open because it is very well run and gets very good Ofsted reports.

“There are about 15 staff working at the nursery and I know they are upset about this, although staff and parents have been asked not to discuss this.”

Mr Pialek, a 29-year-old international development programme adviser for Oxfam, added: “We live in Abingdon but we picked an Oxford nursery because I can drop the children off and then go straight to work.

“From what we can gather, the college doesn’t want to spend money refurbishing the old building and there has been a slight decrease in the number of staff and student parents.

“The college is quite within its rights to close the nursery, but we would like them to suspend the decision for the time being to see if a solution can be found to keep it open.”

In the letter to parents, Dawn Buzzard, the college’s director of environment and resources, said the closure was due to increased running costs and fewer staff and students using the nursery.

Further education funding cuts that make subsidising the nursery, where a daily session costs about £45 per child, unsustainable.

Ms Buzzard added in the letter that college managers “recognised” that it would take parents time to find alternative childcare facilities.

OCVC principal Sally Dicketts said the nursery was being subsidised by the college by about £35,000 a year and there were other financial pressures including renovating the building.

She added: “We understand this is devastating for parents and are trying to keep the nursery open until the end of August.”