Greens challenge County Council over Children's Centres

Green Party County Councillors will be challenging the County Council with a motion to abandon plans to shut the County's 44 Children's Centres. 

Councillor David Williams, leader of the Green Group on the County Council, explains:

"The County Council must recognise that closing the County's 44 Children's Centres may be a false economy. There can be little doubt that the impact on families in need of help from the Centres will in all probability result in greater financial pressures on the social services and the local NHS. As individuals, mostly women, will be forced to give up part time employment as a result of the planned closures, the County Council must also recognise that this policy will not only deeply impact on thousands of families and their children but also damage the local economy.

"Oxfordshire's Green County Councillors have been disturbed to find that an estimated two thirds of about 2300 Children's Centres in England have already been forced to make cuts. Since one million families are using these Centres to ensure a better life for their family members, such cuts cannot be seen as anything other than persecution of the poor and the vulnerable. Oxfordshire's 44 Centres threatened with closure are part of about 250 Children's Centres already likely to be closed in England. This is despite evidence that the use of such Centres has been growing."