THE Port Fairy Childcare Action Group has rejected concerns by Moyne Shire councillor Jim Doukas that the council should leave any increase in childcare services in the town to private enterprise.
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Group spokeswoman Lucy Marshall said Port Fairy did not have sufficient children in need of childcare to attract a private operator.
Ms Marshall said she understood at least 90-100 children aged up to five years were needed to make a private childcare centre viable in the town.
However, she said Port Fairy did have enough children to create excessive demand for the existing 35 places at the council’s childcare centre.
A council spokesman said there were presently about 50 families on the centre’s waiting list.
Ms Marshall said the shortage of places was forcing some parents to place their children in a Koroit childcare centre and another as far away as Warrnambool — separating siblings from each other and creating an arduous drop-off and pick-up schedule.
She said that while a family day care place had opened in Port Fairy, it only accepted children aged over three years.
At the council’s April meeting, Cr Doukas reiterated his earlier opposition to the centre’s expansion, saying it would be a drain on the council’s finances and the private sector should meet any demand for more childcare in Port Fairy.
He opposed a motion to close a section of Atkinson Street, which is presently used for car parking for the community services centre, to provide room for the centre’s expansion.
Cr Doukas said there was not enough demand for childcare places to justify extending the centre.
“The figures do not add up,” he said.
The council already heavily subsidised child welfare and would face financial challenges once the state government capped local government rates next year, Cr Doukas said.
However, he was the only opponent to the move to close part of Atkinson Street to accommodate the centre’s expansion, with the motion passing on 5-1 vote.
The council voted last December to contribute $170,672 towards the centre’s expansion, adding to the $304,000 committed last year by the state government for the move.
The centre’s childcare service can presently cater for 12 children aged up to three years and 23 children aged from 3-5 years.
When the planned extension is completed, the centre will be able to care for 12 children aged up to two years, 16 children aged from 2-3 years and 30 children aged from 4-5 years.
The expansion to the centre is expected to be completed in the middle of next year.