Opening of Belmore Children’s Centre

Today we held a celebration to open the new Children’s Centre at Belmore Primary School in Barnhill.

For several years I used to be the Chair of the local Early Years Partnership, which was responsible for promoting childcare in Hillingdon. About three years ago the Government announced a new child care and early years education programme, which allocated significant funds to develop local children’s centres in every neighourhood.

A children’s centre provides all the services a family needs to support them in the community, including childcare, children’s play facilities, and advice and support on health, education and welfare rights.

When we became aware of the potential for government funds for children’s centres a group of us got together in the Barnhill area to prepare a bid for funds for a centre on the Barnhill estate. The group included the local councillors John Major and Anthony Way, the headteacher at Belmore Primary School, and representatives from the Primary Care Trust and the local community centre and myself.

We drafted a detailed bid for funding. A local young woman, Tracey Beck, worked tremendously hard in helping us put together the applicattion. The bid was successful and as a result today we have opened a wonderful new children’s centre on the site of Belmore Primary school.

The opening celebration brought together a large gathering of local people and all those organisation that had helped us in this venture. The best part of the opening ceremony however was the singing from the pupils at the school. Listening to the young children singing “Silent Night” so beautifully brought quite a few tears to many eyes.

I interviewed Councillor John Major about the role of the new centre. John has been the driving force behind this and so many other community improvements in the Barnhill area.

submitted by John on 05 Dec 2008 at 17:00