Reform-run South Tyneside Council has voted to close 10 council-subsidised nursery facilities by 31 July next year, in a move that has sparked anger among parents and nursery workers.

The Reform cabinet voted to close all of the South Tyneside Accredited Network for Learning in the Early Years (Stanley’s) nurseries yesterday. 

A total of 116 people are employed across the 10 nurseries.

The Reform council said it was “not viable” to keep the facilities open, as they require a subsidy of £1.1 million per year. 

The authority needs to make £11.6 million in savings for 2026/27. 

South Tyneside Council’s lead member for children’s services, Michelle Fascione, said: “The council unfortunately doesn’t have a statutory obligation to provide these nurseries and it’s been costing us £1.1m a year to subsidise and it’s not viable for the future.

“As a new administration within South Tyneside, it would have been great for us if we could have kept them open, but in reality there was just no way it could be done.”

A review of the future of these nurseries was launched under the then Labour administration in February this year. When Reform took control of the authority in May, the party said it would continue the review.

Leader of the opposition on the council, Green councillor Rachael Taylor, wrote a statement on Facebook saying she was “deeply disappointed that Cabinet has voted to close all 10 STANLEY’s nurseries within 10 minutes of the meeting starting despite significant questions that still require proper answers”.

She said “concerns remain around SEND, children’s services, alternative childcare capacity and the financial implications including what funding will actually be available to deliver the proposed mitigation and action points”.

After the Reform cabinet announced the decision, members of the public in the gallery spoke out in outrage.

One woman could be heard saying: “You should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves. Absolutely disgusting.”

She added that at a scrutiny meeting the day before council officers “could not provide one single piece of evidence to back that [the decision] up”. 

Another said: “Where are your PROUD values now?”, in reference to the council’s commitment to being professional, respectful, open and honest, understanding and engaging and “delivering what we say we will”. 

In a post on X, journalist Kevin Maguire wrote: “The Hard Right party’s South Tyneside councillors had the public gallery cleared after angry parents shouted “shame”.”

He added: “You can’t blame migrants for this, Farage.”

Geraldine Kilgour, a Labour councillor for Fellgate and Hedworth ward in South Tyneside, told Left Foot Forward that while the previous Labour administration was reviewing childcare provision, the idea of closing the nurseries “wasn’t even on the lips of anyone on the Labour group”.

“Review of day care centres was, as we were advised, part and parcel of good practice and doing due diligence,” Kilgour said.

The Labour councillor said that “what they [Reform] should have done was review the service, as we said and look to maximising its capabilities”. She said that the decision to close the 10 nurseries was avoidable “without a doubt” and called the move “callous and heartless”.

She added that childcare will now cost parents “a lot more”, with one resident saying they are currently paying £400 per month, but that they could now pay around £1,000 per month at a Private, Voluntary or Independent nursery.

Kilgour also said that Reform is now reviewing milk provision for under 5s, which is a statutory service. “There’s something amiss, I think they’re targeting the most vulnerable,” Kilgour said.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

The post Outrage as Reform-run council votes to shut 10 nurseries appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

Reform-run North Northamptonshire Council is set to propose a motion to scrap the council’s climate emergency declaration at a meeting this evening.

Leon Gibbs, a Reform councillor who has seconded the motion, says that Reform is scrapping the declaration because it does not believe in declaring an emergency “while simultaneously working towards a target 24 years away”. 

Gibbs also said that Reform “care deeply about the future of North Northamptonshire’s environment and believe the council should focus its efforts and resources on the areas where it can make a real difference”.

The climate emergency declaration was adopted in 2021 under the then Conservative-run administration.

Last year, the Reform-run executive voted to scrap the council’s target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, delaying it to 2050 in line with the national net-zero target.

Ben Williams, deputy leader of the Green group, pointed out that the net zero target is now 24 years away because Reform pushed it back.

Reacting to Gibbs’ comment that Reform cares about the future of North Northamptonshire’s environment, Williams said: “Their actions so far don’t reflect that sentiment.”

He added: “There are so many opportunities on the table that they could invest in whether it’s renewable energy or insulating people’s homes, there’s no evidence of any of that.”

“For them to delay the net zero target from 2030 to 2050 is one thing, then to now not declare an emergency and not measure carbon is another,” he said.

Williams noted that over 20 members of the public have requested to speak on the  motion at the meeting today.

“Reform can’t say residents don’t care about this because it’s an item that has had such an insane amount of interest from the public,” Williams said.

The motion is likely to pass as Reform has a majority of 12 on the council. However, there is widespread opposition to scrapping the climate emergency declaration among opposition councillors. 

The Northamptonshire Telegraph has also reported that protesters plan to gather outside Corby Cube, the council building, this evening to oppose the motion.

Despite several Reform having scrapped climate emergency declarations at several councils it runs, including in Derbyshire, Durham, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Kent, voters are concerned about climate change.

Polling by Ipsos in August found that 74% of voters report being concerned about climate change.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

The post Reform council proposes scrapping climate emergency declaration appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.

Reform MP Robert Jenrick has backed Sunderland City Council’s decision to refuse to support Wear Red Day, a campaign day run Show Racism the Red Card.

In a series of posts on X, Jenrick also suggested that the council was right to pull funding from anti-racism charity Show Racism the Red Card.

However, the charity has made clear that the current administration was not providing any funding to the organisation and that it has only withdrawn its support for Wear Red Day on 16 October. 

James Kingett, North East education manager at Show Racism the Red Card, told Left Foot Forward that the charity has not yet had a conversation with the current leadership about funding, but “we would speculate that this is not a good sign”. 

The Reform leader of Sunderland City Council, Chris Eynon, said in a council meeting that the council would not be supporting Wear Red Day this year due to comments the anti-racism charity’s CEO Ged Grebby has posted about Reform online.

In the meeting, Eynon read out some posts Grebby had published on X that were critical of Reform, including him saying that “Reform is a very very dangerous organisation” and that “racists have been emboldened by Farage”. 

Jenrick accused Grebby’s X account of being “a sewer of anti-Reform rants”.

The Tory turncoat turned Reform MP said that given Reform won 58 out of the 72 seats on the council in May, “Residents would be right to question whether this organisation should be supported financially by their council under Mr Grebby’s leadership”.

However, Jenrick’s claim overlooks the fact that Show Racism the Red Card is not currently “supported financially” by the Reform-run council.

Jenrick made the comments on X after he refused to say whether he supported Show Racism the Red Card in an interview with LBC’s Nick Ferrari.

Asked if he agreed with Eynon’s claims that Show Racism the Red Card is a “politically charged organisation with an agenda”, Jenrick said: “I don’t know, Nick, what lies behind that.”

Pressed on whether he thinks the football anti-racism initiative is “politically charged”, Jenrick repeated that he didn’t know “the evidence” behind the comments.

He then added: “Do I think it’s reasonable Nick, for a local authority to make choices about what charities and organisations they support? Yes, absolutely.”

Ferrari asked if Jenrick supported driving racism out of football. Jenrick responded: “The aim is obviously laudable but I don’t know what lies behind the decision.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward

The post Robert Jenrick backs Reform council refusing to support football anti-racism campaign day appeared first on Left Foot Forward: Leading the UK's progressive debate.