Growing fears of crèche closure in Mungret

LABOUR Party councillor Joe Leddin has asked Council planners to carefully consider the implications of granting planning permission for apartments on the site of the former Mungret girls school now housing a crèche. Cllr Leddin told the Limerick Post that a grant of permission would result in the closure of a vital piece of social infrastructure that currently caters for 82 children with a staff of 14. “As a public representative, I am concerned that the removal of Tiny Friends Crèche undermines sustainable community planning in Mungret and removes a vital community facility which provides childcare and early years education to many young children in Mungret, Raheen, and Dooradoyle,” the City West representative said. “Tiny Friends is not a vacant building, rather it is a long-established, fully operational crèche serving families in one of the fastest-growing communities in Limerick.” The Limerick Development Plan, Cllr Leddin pointed out, mandates the protection and retention of essential community services. Permitting the permanent removal of an operational childcare facility, without any strategy for replacement or relocation, he said, breaches these policies. “The omission of a childcare assessment within the planning documentation is a glaring deficit. National guidelines dictate that developments must sustain or safely expand local childcare provisions. There is no data in this application to show how the loss of these crèche places will be replaced. “Equally worrying with hundreds more houses being built including 250 by the Land Development Agency in Mungret is the failure by developers to build crèches approved by planners in several nearby locations,” he said. According to Cllr Leddin, a balanced approach to planning is needed. He urged the Council to mandate that a crèche be included in any residential development permitted on this site. “I have always supported residential development but not at the loss of the crèche facility. In my view, the applicant must be compelled to provide a dedicated, replacement community childcare facility on-site as part of any proposed redevelopment,” he said. “Under the new statutory powers afforded to the Department of Children, I will also be asking the Minister to make an informed submission on Planning Application Ref. 2660742 to ensure we can collectively prevent the loss of this established childcare service.” The post Growing fears of crèche closure in Mungret appeared first on Limerick Post.