Parents ‘extremely disappointed’ as nursery gives two weeks’ notice of eviction from Northamptonshire garden centre

Parents have been left “extremely disappointed” to learn that Klas Day Nursery has been evicted from the grounds of a Northamptonshire garden centre.

The nursery has been located at Bell Plantation, in Towcester, for more than two decades and will be closing by next Friday (June 30).

The parents of children at the nursery, as well as the staff members, were all broken the news on the same day and it has caused great upset among the community.

At the time they all found out, there were two weeks to go until the nursery was planned to close.

Robyn Ramsell, mother to a three-year-old daughter at Klas Day Nursery, said: “The impact is around 60 children will be displaced from a loving and brilliant childcare provider, at a time where parents are having to wait over a year for nursery places.”

Robyn’s daughter only moved to Klas six months ago and has thankfully managed to secure a place at her former nursery – but this will require Robyn to reassess her working days and travel a total of an hour and 20 minutes each day, which she described as a “real challenge”.

“Some parents have got nowhere to go,” she said. “They are facing the challenge of no places until September or 18-month waiting lists.

“There are mothers who have just come back from maternity leave who are desperately trying.”

Fellow parent Vicky Hauer-Bain said: “As the area is already overstretched with childcare, you can imagine how hard it will be for parents – most of them working full time – to find a new place for their little ones within two weeks.

“As a parent, I am also dreading to tell my child about this. Toddlers and preschoolers will be devastated to find out they will not be able to play with their friends and teachers anymore, and for babies it will be hard to settle in a new environment again.

“The staff are also devastated. One carer I talked to has been there for 25 years.

“To say that parents are extremely disappointed is a massive understatement.”

Robyn and Vicky are two of many parents who contacted this newspaper to express their concern and disappointment.

The parents had heard that the directors of Klas Day Nursery were given a two-year eviction notice, so want answers as to why they – and the staff members – were only informed two weeks prior to the eviction taking place.

The question on everyone’s lips, summed up by parent Matthew, is “did Klas directors withhold information from staff and parents, or has Bell Plantation evicted an essential local service without understanding the social and ethical impacts?”

To get answers, the directors of Klas Day Nursery and Bell Plantation were approached for comment by the Chronicle & Echo. Here is what they had to say…

Barry and Lewis Stonhill, the directors of Klas Day Nursery, said:

“We fully understand the problems caused by our decision to close Klas Nursery at such short notice but unfortunately we were left with no alternative.

“We were in discussions with Bell Plantation two years ago about relocating to larger and new premises on their site, however they decided to give us an eviction notice.

“We offered higher rental payments, we have searched high and low to find alternative premises in Towcester but unfortunately this has not been successful.

“We have kept the nursery running for as long as we could and had not given up hope until recently. Subsequently, we had to take the hard decision to let the staff know and this has resulted in us having to close the nursery as we would no longer have the required staffing levels to remain open.

“We can only apologise to the parents for this short notice but please rest assured we did not want to close the business which we have run for the last 20 years during good and bad times.

“We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of the staff and parents for their support over the last twenty years and the recent weeks. We are in contact with other nurseries in the area to try and help the staff and children.”

Freddie and Jethro Warren, part owners of Bell Plantation, said:

“We considered a number of factors before making this decision. Given the expansion of the site and the huge increase in the volume of traffic on the Tove roundabout, we no longer felt this was a good location to have a nursery school.

“If we did not end the lease at this point, we would have been committed for a further five years – which was too long given the changes to the site and the local landscape.

“Unfortunately we did not have a strong working relationship with the owners of Klas and we would not have continued with them beyond the end of the lease.”

The part owners confirmed that the directors of Klas were informed on August 3, 2021 that their lease would come to an end on August 5, 2023 in line with the agreed terms.

They continued: “Contractually, one year's notice was required but we gave them two to give them time to find an alternative premises.”

Parents of children at Klas Day Nursery heard that there was the potential for a purpose built nursery to be created on site.

When questioned about this, Jethro and Freddie said: “We have planning permission for another large building on site that we would like a nursery school to form part of, however, it relies on other businesses committing to taking space which we haven’t been able to achieve yet.

“We would definitely be open to having a nursery school on site in the future.”

The statement concluded: “We are really sorry to all the parents who have been affected by this. We gave notice two years ago to allow Klas to find alternative premises in the local area. We never expected them to give parents and staff two weeks’ notice of their closure.

“We have tried to act with honesty and integrity throughout this whole process and we hope that in time people will understand that we take our part in the local community very seriously.”