Number of children at Worthing nursery to almost double

The former Footprints Children and Family Centre, at 40 Crescent Road, now has permission to take in 60 children – up from the previous maximum number of 34.

Footprints was previously owned by West Sussex County Council but will now be run by Pumpkin Patch Nurseries Limited.

Director Roger O’Hara said: “We have the floorspace to accommodate the increase and will need more child spaces to meet the needs of our customers.

“The increased capacity would be in line with day nurseries nearby.”

Seven people objected to the plans due to concerns over increased traffic and noise close to a residential area.

Local highways authority WSCC said there was ‘no evidence’ that the existing access is ‘operating unsafely’.

“We appreciate the increase in child spaces will lead to an increase in journeys to and from the nursery and have produced a green travel plan for our customers and staff with a view to reducing the increase in car journeys as much as possible,” Mr O’Hara said.

“We have a customer car park and staff will be encouraged to park further away.”

Concerns about noise were also shared by Worthing Borough Council’s environmental health officer who wanted to limit the number of children allowed outside at any one time and suggested closing the garden for two hours every day.

Mr O’Hara agreed to limit the number of children in the garden to 34 at any one time but said that shutting it off would be an ‘unacceptable restriction on their learning experience’.

“We have a good sized outside space and are happy to limit the numbers using garden to the existing 34 capacity and will be employing outside lead practitioners whose role it will be to plan play and learning experiences in the garden,” he said, “This reduces noise as the children are engaged.”

WBC’s planning committee reluctantly supported the plans on Wednesday (16 November) with added conditions.

More details can be found at WBC’s planning portal using the reference: AWDM/0905/22.