Nursery to close in merger expansion plans

Managing Director of The Old Station Nursery Sarah Steel reading to a youngster

A nursery not far from Lincoln city centre will close down, so it can merge with another nursery.

As part of The Old Station Nursery’s expansion plans, its Waterside unit based at LA Fitness will close and move to a nursery next to Lincoln College on Monks Road.

The move will see 55 children and 16 staff from Lincoln College and Waterside merge in early November.

It will mean the nursery, now in Elm House, can take on up to 70 children — currently, the college can care for a maximum of 25 while the Waterside can look after 30 youngsters.

Elm House was originally owned by the college, but is now managed by The Old Station Nursery. It will use the bottom two floors, and rent out the rest as office spaces, with its own entrance.

Youngsters between two and five will be based on one floor, backing out onto a large garden, while under twos will be on the ground floor, level with Monks Road.

Parents can pick up and drop off on Rosemary Lane, with to eight new parking spaces created.

Managing Director of The Old Station Nursery Sarah Steel said: “We needed to find a new site in Lincoln as the lease was up at the college setting, but we also knew we wanted to bring Waterside South into the fold of one of our other settings.”

The nursery group also has settings at Lincoln Marina and Wragby Road in the city as well as one in Newark, four across Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire and a crèche in Buckinghamshire.

“This building came up and it was perfect for our needs; near to where our college nursery is currently based, but much larger and with the chance to grow further.

“The size of the building means we’re able to keep on all our experienced staff and children, but still have the chance to grow and expand. City centre childcare is very much in demand due to the ease for parents working centrally who won’t have time to make a detour to and from nurseries outside of the centre.

“We knew there would be lots of questions from parents and staff so we’ve made sure that they have been kept in the loop about the change, which we see as very positive for the group.

“The main concern we had from parents at the Waterside setting was about the drop-off and pick-up times at the new site as many of the parents work at Waterside South. We’ve addressed this by opening the new setting earlier and shutting later to give mums and dads more flexible access.

“We pick up the keys on 12th October and then we’re going to have builders in for a few weeks to bring the facilities up to scratch,” Sarah added. “We’ll be putting in a new kitchen and toilets and completely redecorating the inside as well as landscaping the garden.”