A petition to ‘save’ SDN Gumnut childcare centre has been created by the parent of a child attending the not-for-profit centre.
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“It is important for our community that the choice of a not-for-profit childcare centre be maintained in our area. This has dire ramifications for children with disabilities, special needs and the most vulnerable in our community,” said the petition, written by a Lithgow resident who has asked to go by the name Christy.
“SDN also helps regulate the cost of childcare in our community,” she said.
So far the petition, which was published on change.org on Monday July 17, has garnered 160 signatures and many comments on Gumnut’s future.
Earlier this month parents of children at the centre received a letter from SDN informing them that Lithgow City Council had not accepted the lease terms submitted by the service to continue using the 21 Proto Avenue premises.
Council general manager Graeme Faulkner said the council and the childcare centre have been in direct negotiations for 18 months and had not come to an agreement. He could not confirm the negotiations were about rent price.
The council will call for public expressions of interest in the lease of the building as a childcare centre. SDN was invited to participate.
The minutes from the closed council session in which councillors resolved to re-tender the site show they also supported that, “once a commercial lease is in place, council re-consider its options in terms of the sale of 21 Proto Ave Lithgow”.
Gumnut House was established as a community childcare centre in 1983. SDN took over management in 2012.