Reprieve for nursery move

Up to 33 youngsters, aged under five, are looked after at the Pavilion Nursery.

But they faced having to go somewhere else after the business's owner, Christine Southerton, was told she had to leave the building by December 31.

The nursery's landlord, the University of Chichester, wants its Hook Lane site for a major expansion of the services on its campus.

University bosses have given Mrs Southerton a three-month extension of her lease to enable her to find new premises.

This decision followed the rejection by Arun District Council a month ago of Mrs Southerton's bid to move into a business centre in Durban Road.

She said: 'I am obviously relieved we can stay here a bit longer. The parents are relieved as well that we are still here for the early part of 2008.

'But three months is not very long. It will soon go by.

'Hopefully, after the end of March we will be in new premises and not having to close.

'But the threat of closure will still be there if we don't win the appeal. It has not gone away.'

The breathing space will enable Mrs Southerton to use planning consultants to appeal against Arun's decision.

Councillors voted 8-5 against allowing her to use the change of use of part of the business centre.

They said the nursery would take away space for industrial jobs and cause potentially unsafe conflicts between nursery users and traffic using the industrial estate.

'I still can't understand why a commercial business can't be allowed to move into commercial premises,' said Mrs Southerton.

She asked for anyone who believed they knew about suitable premises to contact her.

One estate agent came forward after the Observer highlighted the nursery's plight.

But the suggested location did not fit the nursery's needs.