CAMPAIGNERS for Knutsford Children’s Centre are ‘really pleased’ with progress made at a meeting with council officials.

Friends of Cheshire East Children’s Sure Start Centres met with Congleton MP Fiona Bruce, Cheshire East Council leader Rachel Bailey and a number of Cheshire East staff who work in the area of children and family services to discuss the future of four de-designated centres in Knutsford, Nantwich and Rural, Sandbach and Broken Cross.

Within the meeting, which was organised by Mrs Bruce MP, the group raised concerns about the council’s strategy ‘so far’ and made suggestions for how it contribute to any decisions regarding children’s centres going forward.

Maeve Kelly, of Friends of CECSSC, said: “We were trying to get across that we want them to want to listen to us.

“We are really happy with how the meeting went on Thursday. The goal was to get some sort of agreement, to get to a place where we are a bit more involved and feeding into the strategy.

“We are getting a lot of support from town councils and parents and we have been doing some fundraising to help our cause.”

The group also visited the scrutiny committee on Monday, June 27 to try to engage with them but Maeve said that they have been left ‘scratching their heads’ but will continue to talk with the committee going forward.

Speaking about Thursday’s meeting, a Cheshire East Council spokesman said: “This was an extremely positive meeting and we were able to re-assure representatives of the group on a number of points concerning the de-designation of four children’s centres in the Borough.

“Firstly, we were able to state clearly that the decision was about de-designation and not closure and there are no plans to close any of these buildings.

“We also pointed out that across the four centres to be de-designated only seven sessions out of 74 have changed and that some of these changes were not a direct result of de-designation.

“We asked that the Friends of Cheshire East Children’s Centres should try to avoid causing unnecessary anxiety to vulnerable families with talk of closure and reduction of service. The group was also invited to identify representatives to join the management boards of the children’s centres.”