Pre-school to close as church hall to be sold on

Quarrington Pre-school Nursery has been based at Quarrington Community Hall on Grantham Road for over 30 years, with generations of parents attending.

Jo McEnery co-owns the pre-school with Shirley Hardy and explained they will have to vacate by the end of July and close as there is nowhere else to relocate and serve residents at the southern end of town, meaning a loss of pre-school provision for parents of the 26 children on their books. Some are already concerned about finding an alternative within walking distance.

Jo said: “Everyone is upset and devastated. We just don’t have time to do anything about it and make plans. The children are settled and happy. It is just very sad.”

The pre-school has five staff and works with child care students from St George’s Academy.

Shirley added: “It is such a community service.”

Quarrington church leaders have confirmed they are in negotiations to sell the building to Sleaford Salvation Army to become its new venue for worship and ministry.

Curate Reverend Rebecca Rock said: “We were concerned to give users as much notice of our intention to close as possible and spoke to the pre-school first, giving four months' notice to the start of the new academic year.”

She said the hall is in need of significant repairs and refurbishment and demand for hire has decreased, making its ongoing sustainability a concern for the Church Council.

​​​​​​She added: “​The use by the church for meetings and worship purposes has also declined. The PCC has explored several different options and is now in the early stages of negotiating the sale of the hall.”

Existing hall bookings will be honoured until September 1.

The Salvation Army’s Major Dawn McGarvey said they have been looking to relocate for 40 years due to the state of their own building on Westgate not being up to modern standards after being used for over 100 years.

Major McGarvey said the process of transferring ownership will take some time and nothing would be certain until everything is signed off.

She said the Salvation Army has its own children’s activities and other exciting programmes for families and older people which it wishes to expand but there are no plans for use as a hostel.

“There are lots of things we have in mind to use it for the community, but we have to have vacant possession and we do not tend to let our hall out to other people.”