********I need the combined might of mumsnetters to help northender wage a very last minute campaign to save the creches at our local council leisure centres**********

[northender]

I am actually typing this from the council internet facility at one of the leisure centres! I have just found out that pending a council vote on Friday the fantastic creche facilities at our 2 centres in Preston will be closed and the opening hours of the centres limited in order to fund weekly refuse collections.

To say I am angry is a huge understatement and I want to do all I can between now and Friday to lobby, campaign etc against these cuts. Given the limited time I have and my lack of experience in anything like this then I would appreciate any advice!

My initial thoughts are to send a very personal testimony to the value of the creche to all councillors.
I want to email a letter to the local paper to try to get that in tomorrows paper encompassing some of the arguments I feel strongly support the maintenance of current facilities and oppose the use of funding for weekly bin collections

eg. weekly collections decrease motivation for recycling
having moved to fortnightly collections 4 years ago to go back to weekly is a real backward step
bearing in mind obesity timebomb etc reducing access to fitness facilities (which incidentally are state of the art, having had huge recent investment and refurbishment) defies belief
Something related to exercise and depression (ie PND) and the creche helping vulnerable young mums to access the facilities.

These are my quick initial thoughts (apologies for typos). I would appreciate any stats I could use to support these arguments or personal experience youve had of similar issues in your local area.

Am going back up to the gym now to work off some of my anger , will pick up on this as soon as I get back home.

Thanks to anyone who has made the effort to get to the end of the post!

bumping for you

northender why not try to speak to someone at the paper, maybe ask if they had planned to cover the story and if not would they consider it? it may be too late to get anthing in there but worth a try - if its anythin like ours they'll be glad to cover something other than the usual sensational 'cat stuck up tree' stories!

Thanks pfnm and chief. I will contact the paper. They apparently have run a small piece about it but purely information not a "don't cut our services.....". They have in the past however, run "Fortnightly collections mean rat infestation blah, blah.............".

I have an email address for one of our local councillors so will email him too.

If anyone can help with useful stats /websites for info supporting this I'll be very grateful. In the meantime I'm off to google.........

blimey is the meeting public? go and have your say. that's appalling.

I did wonder if the meeting would be public sea. I've never been near a council meeting before but if it was public I certainly feel strongly enough to go and speak.

The Leisure Centre and creche have been a godsend to me since dd was born 3 years ago. Amazingly we're a family of four and we manage just fine with the fortnightly bin collection!

check on the council website, our are listed. there's certainly a case for creches against bringing back weekly collections.