Welsh Harp Education Centre saved by a Wembley based family firm
The popular nature centre was visited by nearly 4,000 people last year
A FAMILY-run building firm has rescued an education centre by stumping up the cash to save it from the axe.
The popular Welsh Harp Education Centre was facing closure after Brent Council announced that it would close for good unless alternative funding was found.
The centre was saved in the eleventh hour after Wembley-based company Carey signed a rescue deal.
The company’s generosity will result in Brent pupils continuing to get the opportunity to experience the great outdoors, as the centre which lies at the edge of the 110-acre reservoir is regularly used by schools for science field trips.
Cllr Ann John, Brent Council’s leader, said: “Everyone was saying to us ‘We don’t want to close this centre’, so we came up with another idea.
“The deal was not actually signed until just before the full council meting – the ink had barely dried before we voted on it.”
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The cherished centre includes two classrooms, a nature trail and an adventure playground and is regularly used by schools across Brent. Last year, nearly 4,000 children visited it.
Teachers welcomed the rescue package, but warned that other cuts passed by the council amounted to a serious attack on children’s services which would hit the most vulnerable hardest.
These include plans to axe around half of all staff at the borough’s 17 children’s centres, and cuts to the child social care budget, holiday play schemes for children with disabilities, and special educational needs support.
