A DECISION to close a children’s centre in Burnham used by dozens of families in order to save cash has been branded “unacceptable”.

Somerset County Council revealed this week that the town’s Octopus Children’s Centre is set to be one of 18 across the region to be axed.

The authority is expected to rubberstamp its cost cutting plans on Monday which will see the existing 41 centres drop to 23.

Highbridge town councillor Helen Groves, whose three children attended Highbridge Children’s Centre, has hit out at the cuts.

She said: “It’s completely unacceptable to remove the centre in Burnham.

“I fail to see the gain in taking something that works really well as a one stop shop and splitting it up into a disorganised, patchy service.

“A merger of centres would take away the sense of community and would see less staff caring for a greater number of children, leading to a poor service.

“Children’s centres provide excellent services in the form of after school clubs, family services, access centres for children whose parents are separated, money management, cooking classes and more.

“The provision through private providers is not adequate to accommodate the extra children or the services these centres offer.”

But council children and families chief Frances Nicholson said: “We were spending too much money running services and not enough on actually delivering them.”

The plans involve creating ‘clusters’ of centres to come under new names, e.g. Sedgemoor North.

Although Highbridge CC would continue to operate normally, five centres, including Octopus CC, would be ‘dedesignated’, meaning they will no longer be classed as Children’s Centres.

A spokesman for the county council said: “Family support will still be provided in these five communities, in many cases still in the buildings – though in some cases through another venue, depending on local discussions and the level of need.

“For example, if you have a school with a nursery that has a waiting list, while in the same village there is a children’s centre that is underused, then we may be able to organise a swap.

“The school would take over the building that was a children’s centre and use it for a nursery, while the family support gets provided through the school.

“The family support is still being provided, although there is no longer a children’s centre.”

More than 1,100 people took part in a consultation on the centres’ future earlier this year.

Council chief Frances Nicholson said: “This is about services, not buildings.

“Our priority has to be to provide front-line support where it is most needed, in places where it can be easily accessed – whether that is a children’s centre, a library, a school hall or a community centre.

“We were spending too much money on running services and not enough on actually delivering them.

“We are putting that right and doubling our spend on the frontline.”

The draft decision paper will be discussed at a meeting of the County Council scrutiny committee on Friday in the Luttrell Room at County Hall in Taunton, starting at 9.30am.