Warnham railway station building could house church and children's nursery

Living Faith Assembly says the setting would provide an environment where children are ‘nurtured and stimulated to learn about the world whilst also promoting positive relationships and good manners founded on our Christian ethos’.

Kingdom Stars nursery would also provide wrap around care via an after school club and extra tuition in key subjects such as maths and sciences.

The proposed premises, Station Road North in Mercer Road, would be run as a church on Sundays, and then function as a nursery during the week.

A change of use application has been submitted to Horsham District Council.

It says the nursery would be run by highly-qualified nurses and managers with extensive experience in early years, with the age range of children between 0-12 years.

The application says: “The old Warnham station serves the village of Warnham, which gives us access to a wide range of families.

"The setting would also have a nursery bus which would be dedicated to picking children up from surrounding schools for the purposes of the after school care.

"The main competition in the immediate area comprises of one nursery which uses the Warnham Village Hall. They are registered to care for six months to five year olds and the pre-school only opens from 7.15am to 3pm for under twos.

“There is another child-minder almost two miles away, however none of these settings would offer the hours or extra benefit of supporting children with their learning via the after school club facility. This is not just a key need but also a unique selling point to families.

“The team at Kingdom Stars Nursery will work extremely hard to ensure that staff, parents and children are confident, supported and happy. Although we are a Christian based nursery, we are inclusive and welcome all faiths into our setting in order to have the opportunity to equip all children to show love in action thereby positively impacting the community.”

To view the application visit Horsham District Council’s planning portal at www.horsham.gov.uk/planning using code DC/22/0493.