A MUM spoke of her anger as the nursery she fought to save looks set to become a car park.

Mel Mills led a year-long fight to keep Cambridge Road Nursery open.

But yesterday she described her anger at Kirklees Council plans to flatten the building on the edge of the town centre and use the land for parking.

“This is out of order,” said the Thornton Lodge woman.

“To just turn that land over to a car park is an insult.”

The council’s Cabinet will decide next week whether to go ahead with a £30,000 plan to demolish the nursery, which is just off Castlegate.

Ms Mills was part of a campaign in 2007-08 to save Cambridge Road and two other Kirklees-run nurseries – Sankofa in Hillhouse and Tiddlywinks in Deighton.

The council decided to close the three nurseries despite a 5,000-name petition calling for them to be saved.

Ms Mills’ daughter Paris Allette, 16, attended Cambridge Road Nursery while her eight-year-old son Jevaugn went to Tiddlywinks.

She said: “The nurseries were absolutely fantastic.”

Ms Mills does not think the council should set up a car park at Cambridge Road.

“It was a perfectly good nursery in a perfectly good building and now it’s going to be knocked down for a car park which the council will just use as another cash machine,” she said.

“I thought at the time that they had their eye on that land.”

The council’s Cabinet will decide next week whether to go ahead with demolition of the building, which has been empty since 2008.

A report by Kirklees officers says the nursery should be demolished before it becomes any more run-down.

The report reads: “The building is considered to be surplus to requirements and, given the recent burglary of copper piping, it is vulnerable to further deterioration.

“The building is presently reasonably secure and maintained but it is likely that it will continue to decline and ultimately become an eyesore and a magnet for anti-social behaviour.”

The demolition would cost £30,000 and take four weeks.

The Labour Cabinet will decide on the plan at its meeting at Huddersfield Town Hall at 4pm on Tuesday.