REGARDING your article in the Bolton Evening News on Wednesday, September 8: "£1.3m centre to give children a better start".

As chairman of governors at Moorgate Primary School, which is a school very near to Tonge Moor Primary, this is the first I have heard of this development. The governing body at Moorgate had been led to believe that our school was going to be the site for the new nursery unit.

While we were given to understand that the children's centre was to be located on the Tonge Moor site, the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership were keen to see childcare developed more widely in the Tonge area. Therefore they supported the development of a new nursery at Moorgate.

This was certainly the view articulated to Moorgate governors during many meetings held in the autumn of 2003. The decision to site the new nursery at Tonge Moor Primary School appears to be a contradiction of the above.

Though we have no objection to Tonge Moor Primary benefiting from additional childcare support, we feel that to have a new nursery linked to the Tonge Moor site is to the detriment of wider childcare in our district as it reduces choice by concentrating all services on one site. Inevitably this will have an adverse impact on our school.

As a school we have a great deal, in terms of childcare, to offer to parents in our district. Unfortunately, despite assurances to the contrary, we have not been given the financial support from the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership for the development of a new nursery linked to our school.

Mrs A Simpkins

Chairman of governors