Parent Catrin Shi at a protest with staff member Lloyd Sherwood

“WHAT an unhelpful contribution.”

That was Councillor Sheila Chapman’s response, after the Greens accused the Town Hall of “batting away criticism” over its handling of the Paradise Park Nursery closure earlier this year.

The nursery, which was run by council-commissioned charity Islington Play Association (IPA), closed in July after months of unsuccessful campaigning by parents.

Despite the nursery now being shut for over two months, the Labour administration butted heads with the Green opposition at a Town Hall debate on its closure last week.

IPA had faced financial insolvency and ordered the council to close the charity, but the Greens say that the administration was trying to “move on quickly” whilst the facts still remain obscured.

“You just love batting away any sort of genuine criticism that is coming your way about what your role has been,” Green councillor Carlos Valero told the chamber.

Cllr Carlos Valero

“What we, and the parents are asking for is a little bit of accountability. There are children who have not assimilated, there are still parents who are struggling to take their children to other centres.”

Cllr Valero accused the council of having a “dismissive mindset” and said that as a local authority, it should be open to learning lessons, rather than simply “patting themselves on the back”.

He added; “With so many other commissioned services relying on council funding, why not use IPA as an opportunity to learn?”

The Town Hall’s children’s services chief Sheila Chapman said: “How dare you suggest that this administration is trying to sweep things under the carpet. We have met with parents on the steps of the Town Hall, we have brought this item to scrutiny. We have met with parents in private.

“I never refused any request to talk to anyone at any point.

“I totally refute your suggestion that there are still questions to be answered. They have been answered, you simply don’t like the answers.”

Labour councillors have always maintained that the decision to close was taken “unilaterally” by IPA and that they have been transparent from the offset.

Cllr Sheila Chapman

They released a briefing last week, laying out the chronology of events that preceded the nursery’s closure.

Green councillor Jara Falkenburg pushed the council to go further with their investigations, adding that requests for “proper scrutiny” had gone “unanswered”.

She told the chamber: “Parents have told us about substantially higher fees and transport costs, journeys five times the length, unpaid leave to support transitions. Families found new places because they had to.

“And that is why we are calling for a new task force review to help us understand exactly what happened, and to do better next time”.

Cllr Chapman responded: “In response to the loose anecdotal suggestion that there are children without places and parents are unhappy, I’d urge those parents if they are out there to come forward because I haven’t heard from them, neither have the family information service or my ward colleagues, nor have they come forward this evening.”

But parents told the Tribune they were infuriated by the Town Hall’s assertion, and that their approach felt like they were “marking their own homework”.

Catrin Shi, one of the affected parents, said: “A prized community asset has closed, children continue to be unsettled, experienced staff are out of work, and miraculously no one from the council thinks they could have done anything differently.

“There is always an excuse, no responsibility, and no sign that they might do things differently next time.”