Community crche to stay open after council's U-turn.

A CASH-STRAPPED council has done a U-turn on a plan to scale back a popular community crche - just two working days after laying off staff. Cardiff Council yesterday pledged to keep the crche, in St Mellons, running for five days a week and re-instated the workers to whom they had previously given notice.

Councillor Ralph Cook, who represents the area, said he was delighted officials had seen sense.

He said: "I think officers had acted without telling the council executive what they were doing. We need to support services in deprived communities. You can send an area backwards very quickly."

Coun Cook had been furious about the decision to give notice to temporary staff and offer the full-time staff voluntary redundancy.

The crche, which is based at Tesco in St Mellons and supports an adult learning centre, was fully refurbished by the supermarket giant at a cost of pounds 200,000 as part of a Section 106 planning agreement.

The trustees of the crche had also just secured an pounds 18,000 grant and the users were planning a protest at the next council meeting to campaign for the service to be saved.

A spokesman for the council confirmed yesterday that the facility would be supported for the "foreseeable future".

He said: "It is the intention of the council to provide a crche to enable parents or carers to pursue a range of courses for the foreseeable future.

"We will continue to run the crche for five days a week and continue to offer courses that are of interest to local people including young parents."