Great Yarmouth nurseries re-open two weeks after trust went into liquidation

Six nurseries that closed unexpectedly - leaving families without childcare and workers without jobs just weeks before Christmas - have re-opened.

Great Yarmouth Community Trust went into liquidation late last month following "serious financial difficulties".

At the time it cared for 450 young people and employed 136 staff across a total of eight nurseries and two other education facilities.

Workers were told they had lost their jobs and would not be paid just a day before they were due to receive their November wages.

But Norfolk County Council has now set up a new company to run six of the closed nurseries.

Priory Day Nursery, Peggotty Nursery, Calthorpe Nursery, and Willow Day Nursery in Great Yarmouth, as well as Seagulls Day Nursery in Gorleston and Filby Nursery all re-opened on Thursday (December 12).

The council said staff previously employed by the trust at those sites had been offered jobs by the new company.

As of 3 December, 55 job offers had been made by the council.

A second company has been set up to run Horatio House, an independent school also previously run by Great Yarmouth Community Trust.

Following discussions with the Department for Education and Ofsted, the county council hopes it will re-open on January 6. In the meantime, students due to return to the school at Lound, near Lowestoft, have been given home-learning packages.

Ladybird Day Care at Kirkley Children's Centre and Little Ducks Nursery in Lowestoft remain closed but Suffolk County Council said it was not aware of any families who were still without childcare.