• Footscray, Yarraville, Braybrook Star

By Charlene Gatt

27th January 2009 11:06:35 AM

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FORMER Kingsville ABC Learning Centre kids are having trouble adjusting to new child care centres as residents mount a fight to re-open the Bishop St site.

A band of 20 parents have formed a committee to research their options after the Kingsville centre closure left families stranded just days before Christmas.

Kingsville resident Susan Douglass said the committee was looking into accreditation, financing and even other property options if the Bishop St site falls through.

Ms Douglass, whose three-and-a-half year old son Harley has been moved to the Williamstown ABC Learning Centre, said the 40-minute round trip was ridiculous.

“We used to have a five-minute walk to the creche,” she said.

“We were told we’d get a spot within a two kilometre radius, however the kids have now been divided up and shuttled off to Braybrook and Williamstown.

“We’re having to go to another council area and some of the kids are having a hard time with the upheaval and the move and settling into their new environments.

“I know mothers and fathers that are driving out to there and then having to drive into the city and across the city (for work). It’s adding a huge amount of time into people’s work day.”

The committee will become officially incorporated next Monday in a community meeting at the Maribyrnong City Council offices.

The Kingsville closure was an additional blow to the municipality’s already-large child care waiting list.

A total 543 children are on the waiting list for a spot in one of the eight community-based services that are on the council’s central register.

The figure does not include waiting lists for private child care centres at Victoria University’s child care facilities.

Maribyrnong City Council acting-CEO Helen Morrissey said it was likely some of the children on the public waiting list would soon receive a place because of annual turnover.

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