STAFF and children are gearing up to move into the new building they thought they would never get.

Rainbow Playgroup in Bicester has been on a roller coaster ride for the past year after £570,000 funding to build a new home was approved, then withdrawn and finally handed over.

Children have been watching the new state-of-the art eco building take shape and are now weeks away from moving in.

The new base, in the grounds of Glory Farm School, will double the nursery in size.

It has also created five new jobs.

The playgroup will be able to offer 44 children places from Easter, up from 25, and will also provide extra services such breakfast, lunch and holiday clubs for three- to 11-year-olds, with longer opening times – from 8am to 5.30pm every day.

Playgroup secretary Roz Edwards said work started in December to clear the ground and the wooden framed building arrived in flatpack form.

She said: “Everybody is very positive. We are all absolutely ecstatic to see that it’s really happening.

“It’s a dream come true.”

Staff and children have raised £8,000 to kit the charity-run nursery out with new equipment.

Mrs Edwards added: “We are replacing all the old equipment we have had for 25 years.

“We have never had anything new, it was always second hand, but this is going to be all new equipment.”

In 2009 the playgroup faced closure after Oxfordshire County Council inspectors condemned its 30-year-old temporary building, but the community rallied around to patch up the building in the short term.

That November, the council stepped in and Rainbow was awarded a £300,000 grant for a new home, later getting the larger sum of £570,000.

But in July last year, months away from starting work, the project was suspended amid a review of spending across the county following a cut to the council’s Government grant.

Rainbow’s new building was one of the schemes saved.

Once in their new home children will have a new project to get their teeth into – creating a wildlife sensory garden and allotment in the grounds.

People can look around the new building at an open day on Easter Monday, which will include an egg hunt between 11am and 1.30pm.

The building will officially be opened by Michael Waine, county council cabinet member for schools, on April 26.

For more information, email rainbowplaygroup@hotmail .co.uk or call 0781 5896501.

bicester@oxfordmail.co.uk