Campaigners seek legal action over children's centre closures

TEN SITES ARE SET TO SHUT DOWN AFTER DECISION BY EALING COUNCIL

- By PHILIP JAMES LYNCH

CAMPAIGNERS seeking to overturn a West London council decision to close ten children's centres in the borough say they are considering legal action.

On Thursday, July 3, the overview and scrutiny committee at Ealing Council responded to an opposition call-in urging Cabinet to reconsider its decision, however this was not upheld and the Labour-majority committee agreed with Cabinet.

Ealing Council announced the plan to close 13 children's centres in March, however, following a public campaign it reduced this to 10.

Claire Welsby, a campaigner for Save Ealing's Children Centres, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service [LDRS] that the fight will continue.

Speaking after the meeting she said: "We are going to continue, we're going to look at judicial review. Obviously there is a big financial implication about that, and we need to seek advice.

"There are lots of things we would look at and we would focus on the process.

"But also, we will continue to hold them to account, through freedom of information requests, continuing to go to public meetings, and continuing to hold protests."