Sir,

Monmouth Community Under Fives (MCU5) has offered childcare for many years to children living in and around Monmouth.

For the past 18 months, we have rented rooms at Bridges Community Centre having been forced to leave our home of 14 years at the Overmonnow Family Learning Centre to make way for Monmouthshire County Council to take over the building, on which they have since spent £56,000 to refurbish it, when repeated requests from MCU5 for improvements during their tenancy were ignored.

Since September 2011, MCU5 has been unable to offer free places to children the term following their third birthday as the LEA say the Foundation Phase cannot be delivered at Bridges as there is no free access to an outside area.

This has now been rectified, but ignored by the authority.

As a result this has taken away the choice of settings for parents in the Overmonow area and left them with no alternative but to send their child to the LEA nursery at Overmonnow Primary school, leaving MCU5 struggling to survive and the LEA nursery filled to the rafters.

To now learn that the LEA has given £45,000 to Cross Ash Under Fives to refurbish the Cross Ash village hall and secure its future is devastating for everyone who has given their support and are still trying to keep MCU5 open.

This is surely unfair practice on the authority's part. Should they not support all playgroups in the county equally?

There are many settings that need financial help, this amount of money could have helped so many more. Perhaps someone from the LEA could explain why this decision was made.

Sue Weston and Angela Morgan

(Monmouth Community Under Fives)