Why so quiet? Trustees have nothing to say as pain of play centre cut bites
Paradise Park nursery now has only three weeks before it is closed down
Friday, 3rd July — By Finn Logue
Parents and nursery staff at the scrutiny meeting in Islington Town Hall on Monday
TRUSTEES of a charity preparing to close a much-loved children’s nursery are frozen in silence.
With just three weeks left before the service at the Paradise Park Children’s Centre is due to close, the Tribune has made repeated attempts to speak to the trustees of the Islington Play Association.
Nobody has been willing to come out and talk about what’s going on – despite rising public anger.
The IPA is commissioned by the council to run the nursery and five adventure playgrounds across the borough.
But now 29 staff are facing imminent redundancy, and even they say they have not had proper communication.
Cinzia Tassinari, the nursery’s deputy manager, told the Tribune: “There has been a big lack of engagement between the trustees and staff. We sent them lots of emails and tried to meet with them to tell them what they were doing wasn’t working, but we don’t see them, and we’ve never been listened to.”
Parents also say they have received no official contact from the charity’s senior leadership on the closure.
The Islington Play Association has four principal trustees who assumed their positions in September 2025. They include Dean Langsdon, who worked in Islington Council’s finance department for 13 years and now works for London Legacy Development Corporation.
Sophie Bruschan is IPA’s fundraising trustee and is also a governor at another nursery within the borough, North Islington Nursery School.
Through phone calls and emails, all have had full invitation to explain their decisions and involvement in today’s paper.
Islington’s children’s service chief, Councillor Sheila Chapman, faced parents on Monday, reaffirming the Town Hall’s position that it was instructed by the IPA, which has operated for 55 years, to close the charity down in December. This was blamed on financial issues.
Finance staff from within the organisation, who work entirely separately to the trustees, say they have presented a fully-costed reorganisation plan to the council that could keep the nursery open for the foreseeable future.
Cllr Chapman said that the council had received the proposal, and would “consider” it.
Parents have now filed an “urgent” judicial review application to the High Court, calling for a halt to the closure.
Colombine Peze-Heidsieck, a parent who attended the meeting with the council this week, said: “The challenge that we are facing is that we have not been able to obtain any answers, transparency or accountability.
“We have exhausted every communication channel, there are still no answers. If this is democracy, it’s a joke.”
The council have said they will continue to run the “Bright Start” service from the building, but there are no long-term plans in place.
Cllr Chapman told Monday’s meeting: “We were told to close by IPA, who were clear that for financial reasons they were no longer able to provide the contractual service, and so we had no option but to close them down. IPA have not communicated well with us, or parents.”
She added that it was “IPA’s job” to communicate clearly with families, insisting that the council repeatedly asked the charity to provide more detailed communication to the affected parents and staff.
She added that “no decision has been made” for the long-term use of the site, because Islington’s current priority was to find alternative childcare provision for affected families.
Protests outside the Town Hall continued ahead of a full council meeting last night (Thursday), where further questions were due to be asked of councillors by parents.
Carlos Valero, a Green Party councillor, said that his group was demanding an “urgent spotlight review” into the case. He said: “As IPA and the council trade blame, families and staff are left to deal with the consequences. They deserve clarity on what action followed IPA informing the council of its financial position in December 2025. IPA clearly has some questions to answer, as does the council in its role as the sole commissioner.”
The only public statement from IPA’s trustees, released on May 22, stated that the suggestion to close the charity “did not originate from the trustees”.
