“HE’S NO George Lansbury, is he?” was the response from one mum on finding out that John Biggs, Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets, is going to close the remaining three Council day care nurseries in Tower Hamlets.
“Is this how he’s going to pay for the extra dosh he’s handing out to his cronies on the Council?” asked another. The comments came as news leaked out that Executive Mayor John Biggs intends to close the Council’s three remaining day care nurseries over the summer.
A plan to consider the feasibility of “reproviding” the nurseries – handing them over to private or voluntary sector providers who would manage the services but then pay rent to the Council – featured in John Biggs’s three year budget, presented to the Council in the spring of 2016.
Since then, campaigners have been arguing that “reproviding” would be an expensive option which would be unlikely to see standards maintained. Nonetheless, John Biggs pressed ahead with his plans in the 2017 budget.
A public consultation took place in late 2017. It is thought that over 80% of respondents opposed the plans and called on the Council to keep running the nurseries. John Biggs responded by announcing that he would go ahead with privatisation of the nurseries – but try to find a way of keeping fees down. No plans were revealed before last month’s elections.
Now Town Hall Unison has discovered that John Biggs intends to close all three nurseries, starting next month – leaving mums with just a few weeks to find alternative places for their children and dashing the hopes of the 90 children on the waiting list.
Unison is furious that 27 staff – mainly women and including a high proportion of BAME women workers – now face redundancy. “It’s all very well the Council claiming it’s an ethical employer because it signed our Ethical Care Charter,” said one nursery worker, “but how ethical is it to put us on the scrapheap? We won’t get the London Living Wage out there, will we?”
Unison reps are also furious that they found out about the closure plans by accident and had to confront Town Hall chiefs to get confirmation that the closures were going ahead and a senior level briefing on what was planned.
Addressing the delay and secrecy surrounding the closure plans, Tower Hamlets Unison said, “UNISON believes that this is a deliberate strategy adopted by the Council to ensure there is as little resistance as possible from staff, trade unions, parents and the community before the find controversial decision to close the nurseries is made at Cabinet.”
Campaigners have vowed to continue pressing councillors to veto the closures and negotiate a future for the nurseries, as an investment in the borough’s youngest citizens. “John Biggs is supposed to be a Labour politician, not a Maggie Thatcher,” said one campaigner. “What does he think he’s doing?”
•Read more about this story: Nursery campaigners surprise Biggs at suffragette event
•Read more about the Biggs regime: The Biggs disgrace – pay rise for top councillors Biggs’s borough – child poverty hotspot