Mel Mills (pictured), one of the organisers of the campaign to save Tiddlywinks, Sankofa and Cambridge Road nurseries in Huddersfield, decided in March to stand as a candidate for the Ashbrow ward of Huddersfield, following meetings with Kirklees Metropolitan Council about the threatened closures (News, 8 March).
She said, 'The nursery campaign inspired me to stand for election. I feel that I'm an ordinary person but I do have a voice, and I hope this will inspire other people as well.'
Campaigners have had some success so far, with the council announcing that it was reviewing the decision to close the nurseries after they presented it with a 5,000-name petition. Parents met with Councillor Jim Dodds, the cabinet member for children's services, who promised that there would be a full and open consultation.
Campaigners also staged a protest march against the nursery closures through Huddersfield town centre last Saturday and collected more signatures.
They were aiming to present a 10,000-name petition to councillors by the closing date of the review on Monday (30 April).
Mr Dodds said that nursery facilities in the area would be replaced, not cut, adding that 14 children's centres have opened in the area and a further 15 are planned by 2008. He said that 40 per cent of places are unfilled in the three nurseries threatened with closure.
But Ms Mills claimed that Sankofa and Tiddlywinks had been told by the council not to take any more children as part of plans to phase out the nurseries.
She said, 'The new children's centres the council talks about do not even offer daycare. They offer a range of services such as health visitors, but nowhere where you can actually leave your child while you go off to work! They are a waste of public money.'