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Rivals drive BMW nursery off the road

Car-maker BMW is to shut down its workplace nursery, due to competition from local providers.

Mini Kids Nursery has been run on the BMW Mini site in Cowley, Oxford bynursery chain Busy Bees for 14 years. Bosses have told the 30 familiesusing the nursery that it 'is no longer sustainable'.

A letter was sent to parents on 29 March to say the nursery would closein September.

Parent Joanne Ejiogu said, 'The main reason we use the nursery is thesubsidised fees and also the fact that it's a really small nursery. Youknow that all the staff really know your child. The parents and staffshould have been involved in the discussions.

'BMW has negotiated a 5 per cent discount at a nearby Kidsunlimitednursery, but I estimate we were getting at least a 25 per cent discountat Mini Kids,' she added.

In a joint statement, Busy Bees Nurseries and BMW Mini Plant Oxfordsaid, 'The decision to close the nursery has been an extremely difficultone but a decrease in demand over the past few years has meant that thenursery is no longer sustainable.

'The nursery opened 14 years ago at a time when there was no provisionin the immediate area. Today there are 20 other providers locally.'