A CHILD carer fears being forced to do a desk job if her nursery shuts.

Alison Sykes works at Tiddlywinks in Deighton, which Kirklees Council has decided to close, along with Cambridge Road Nursery just out of Huddersfield town centre and Sankofa in Hillhouse.

But a review of the decision was ordered the following month after campaigners gathered 5,000 signatures against the plan.

Yesterday Ms Sykes spoke to a special committee of councillors looking into the issue.

She said: “The staff are feeling very low at the moment.”

As council employees, the workers will not be made redundant if the nursery closures go ahead.

But Ms Sykes fears some of the staff will not be able to continue working with children.

She said: “We’ve been given a list of jobs which are available and some of them are admin posts. We’re scared that we’re going to be put behind desks.”

And Ms Sykes added she was worried about the future care of the children she looks after if her nursery closes.

She said: “They will have to go into the private sector. Staff there tend to be young and there’s a high turnover, which is bad for the children.”

Ms Sykes was joined at the committee meeting at Huddersfield Methodist Mission by Mike Foster, of the Kirklees branch of the Unison union.

He told councillors the union had not been involved in early discussions about the nurseries.

He added said: “Staff were told about the closures on February 1. Before that, consultation with the union was non-existent.”

He said all three nurseries were suffering because admissions had been frozen.

Mr Foster added: “Tiddlywinks and Cambridge Road are operating at 50% capacity while Sankofa is only 20% full. The nurseries are losing £2,000 a week because of this, which is crass mismanagement.”

And he denied that closing the nurseries would lead to major savings for council tax payers.

Mr Foster said: “We are told that wage costs are the major expense. But these costs will still be borne by Kirklees if the nurseries are closed because the council has promised to find other jobs for the workers.”

The committee also heard from Mel Mills, whose four-year-old son, Jevaugn, goes to Tiddlywinks.

She asked the councillors to consider the impact on the local area of closing the nursery.

Ms Mills said: “Ashbrow ward is a deprived part of Huddersfield. To lose the nursery would be devastating.

“Parents without transport wouldn’t be able to go to work, which would cause more deprivation. It’s unfair to keep pushing people back when they are striving to make their way in life.”