The meeting was requested by six councillors, including five Liberal Democrats and one independent councillor, who want the council to reconsider the cuts and its proposals to merge or privatise a third of its children's centres, which will lead to 35 management staff and 30 support officers losing their jobs.
However, a motion they put forward, which called for the council to 'reverse its intention' of cutting £6m from the Sure Start budget, was rejected by the Conservative-led council, which criticised the councillors for not providing any alternative suggestions for where they would find the £6m.
Parents who attended the meeting pleaded with the council to reconsider and spoke of how their families had been helped by children's centres. Rebecca Frost, whose son Zach has been attending a children's centre for the last 18 months, said, 'My son is autistic and because of his condition he could be violent, so he was unable to socially interact with other children. We were alone and I was in despair, but the Sure Start centre officers have supported me as a mother and have helped Zach communicate with children his own age.'
Hampshire County Council has received more than 1,000 responses to an extended consultation on its children's centre proposals and is due to make a decision on its plans to merge or privatise them at the end of May.
It was forced to extend the consultation on its proposals to reorganise its children's centres from mid-March until last Friday, after criticism from residents on how it handled the consultation process.
The extended consultation may also be subject to a legal challenge from parents who say it is a sham because the £6m funding cuts were approved in February as part of the council's overall budget (News, 30 March).
Solicitors from Leigh Day & Co, who wrote to the council on behalf of a parent in March to challenge the decision-making process, told Nursery World on Wednesday that they are preparing to issue legal proceedings against the local authority.