The manager of a Willesden nursery closed by education watchdogs Ofsted is waiting to hear when children can return amid claims of an unpaid invoice.

Liz Boffey, the manager of Treetops Nursery in Doyle Gardens, called parents to collect their children yesterday afternoon but cannot say when they can return.

She said: “It’s so upsetting for everyone involved at the moment and we’re still waiting to hear news from Ofsted.

Ofsted sent us an invoice that was never received by us and because it was never received by us we were unaware we had to pay for it so haven’t paid for it.

“When I phoned yesterday to get an update on a report that hadn’t been sent to me by Ofsted, they informed me that the nursery was being deregistered.”

The education watchdog came to inspect the nursery on October 13 and was due to file a report within three weeks.

Ms Boffey added: “I’ve phoned regularly to ask them what’s happening and it was five weeks on Tuesday, so when I called again yesterday that’s when they told me. I offered to pay the invoice there and then but they said no, we have to wait 48 hours for the case to be reviewed and then they will get in touch with us to tell us what’s happening.”

She said she did not know how much the invoice was for, but had looked online and believed it to be “between £50 and £200”.

Parents were called yesterday afternoon with one grandmother making the journey from Buckinghamshire to collect her grandson, her son and daughter-in-law unable to leave work.

Brent Council sold the pre-school to private owners in 2012.

More than 60 families use the centre on a part-time or full-time basis. Parents pay a daily rate of £54 and a weekly rate of £210 for under-threes and £200 for over threes.

Ms Boffey added: “The staff are in today and are we are trying to do things to continue as normal as obviously we want everything to be back up and running as soon as we can.

“Everyone is really upset because we can’t have the children in and at the end of the day the children and their families are our priority. That’s what we’re here for.

”I have got in touch with Ofsted today so hopefully by today we should know.”

An Ofsted spokesman said: “This cancellation was due to an unpaid fee by the nursery. Whenever fees from a childcare provider go unpaid we contact the provider several times before taking the necessary action to deregister the setting.

“When an overdue payment is received we make every effort to reinstate the setting’s registration swiftly.”