I LOOK after my 19-month-old grand-daughter during the week while her mum goes to work.

On a Monday afternoon and Friday morning I attend a parent and toddler session run by Sure Start.

The Monday session is held at Oxford Grove School, Shepherd Cross Street, and the Friday session is held at the Sure Start Centre on Shepherd Cross Street, both in the Halliwell area of Bolton. I have attended the Monday group for approximately 12 months since I started to look after my grand-daughter.

When the Friday session started at the new building, I took Holly there. We have made some nice friends at the groups and the children get on extremely well together (which is what it's all about -- learning to play and share with each other). In fact, most of us go to a parent/grandparent toddler swim at a local pool on a Tuesday.

When we arrived at the Friday session this week, we were told that the people out of the Sure Start area were not welcome to come any more. I find this appalling. We are supporting this community project and this is what we get. My grand-daughter and the other children involved are going to miss this PLAY TIME with the other children (if there are any children left that is). They love it.

I and the other parents/grandparents who are unable to attend feel we are being discriminated against. It's like discriminating black from white. Why were we not told about this when we registered at the beginning? We filled in the forms, paid the fee of £10 and that was that. I would be only too willing to pay another fee, as would the other people involved, if we would be allowed to continue.

Surely the people who are already registered should still be allowed to attend. We have given the centre our full support and this is what happens.

On a Monday session recently, out of 10 children in attendance only two came from the designated area. (How many are going to be at the sessions in future if you refuse us admission?)

It seems to me that the families in the required area are not interested in supporting the toddler groups provided, so why not let the people who are willing to support it carry on going?

I was brought up in the area -- in fact, only four streets away from the centre -- and my mother still lives there and has done so for the last 83 years, living in the same house all that time, so I don't feel as if I'm trespassing. Oxford Grove is still home to me and always will be.

As a point of interest, if I decided to call in at the centre for lunch, would I be asked for my post code and, if it wasn't the right one, would I be turned away?

At the end of the day, it's the children who are going to suffer because of this ruling, and is that fair?

I look forward to a favourable reply.

Mrs Moira Morris

Heaton

Bolton