A CHILDREN’S nursery and creche is to be moved from its council-owned site to make room for a new £325,000 fitness suite.

Small Steps Nursery, based at the Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre, at Garon Park, Southend, is being moved to make way for a fitness centre with its own £50,000 spa pool.

Simon Leftley, Southend Council’s director of adult and community services, said the facility would meet increasing demand for such facilities on the site, also home to the town’s new swimming and diving pool centre.

He added: “The council’s view is the proposed new gym facilities and spa pool will provide a better leisure service and better value for money.”

A confidential council report, passed to the Echo, says Parkwood Community Leisure, the company which runs the centre, for the council, has agreed to provide a nursery elsewhere at Garon Park.

The report states: “The facility has an average attendance of 12 children a day and is not financially viable.

“Parkwood Community Leisure appreciates while the number attending full day care is small, it is meeting a need and would therefore gradually phase out the service and offer alternative full daycare provision at an alternative venue.”

It goes on to suggest a new creche would only be open at “limited times”.

The report also reveals the council is planning to extend its contract with Parkwood by eight years. It has 18 months left to run.

Extending the contract would save the council an estimated £140,000 a year, the report says. It has been agreed by senior Tory councillors, but still needs the approval of a full council meeting.