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A CHILDREN'S centre will be closed, while several in the Maldon and Braintree districts face reduced opening times after Essex County Council agreed a £2.3m cut to children's services across the county.
The proposals, under consultation from October to December, were given the go-ahead at the full cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
It was agreed that Little Lanes Children's Centre in Black Notley will close and merge with the Seesaw Children's Centre in Braintree, which will continue to be designated as a main site.
Main sites in the scheme are buildings which will be open to the public for drop-in visits and services through a combination of face-to-face meetings and on the telephone, operating for at least 50 hours a week.
Delivery sites will be open for a dedicated number of hours each week – providing a number of services varying from site to site – but may not have full-time staff on site all the time.
The other site in mid-Essex to be closed is Stock Children's Centre on Common Road, Stock, that will merge with Chetwood Children's Centre in South Woodham Ferrers.
Councillor James Abbott, who represents Witham Northern for Essex County Council, said: "If the cabinet rubber-stamps these proposals, it will do nothing to dispel the perception that this is an authority that follows a method of 'consult and ignore'.
"In fact there were 1,238 consultation responses across the county.
"The council knows full well that consultations such as these usually do not result in a huge response."
Following the consultation, 11 centres across the county that were scheduled for closure will now remain open but at reduced hours.
In the Braintree district, three main centres will have reduced opening hours from 50 to 40 per week and one main centre will remain at 40 hours.
The four delivery sites in Braintree District will all see a drastic reduction in opening times.
The Roundabout Centre in Witham will go from 42.5 to 10 hours, Rainbow in Sible Hedingham is to be reduced from 32 hours to just five, Valley in Earls Colne will be reduced from 40 hours to 10 and Silver End will go from 40 hours to 20 hours.
The one main centre in Maldon, Maldon Children's Centre, will increase in hours from 38 to 40 per week, but others face a slash in opening times.
Yellow Brick Road in Great Totham will go from 40 hours to five hours, and Dengie children's centre in Burnham-on-Crouch goes from 41 hours to 10.
At the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the member for families and children, Cllr Dick Madden, received a grilling from councillors on the scope of the cuts.
Cllr Abbott said at the meeting: "I'm disappointed by the consultation, despite the feedback of the three centres in Braintree. One will be closed and one will have hours reduced by 50 per cent the other by 80 per cent – no changes were made to proposals in Maldon.
"If you hold a consultation why don't you actually respond? You just carried on with the cuts you were going to make originally."
Cllr Madden said: "The council faces considerable budgetary pressure, as a result we have to make savings to the children centres of £2.3m.
"We favour early intervention and want to be able to help hard-to-reach families, which is harder in the current system. People shouldn't get too absorbed in buildings – the service isn't just in buildings.
"If we make the staffing model more flexible we can support vulnerable children and improve the service that way.
"I visited all of the centres and looked at the staff timetables – staff were working when nobody was there, these proposals will mean they will still be available if a family needs them.
"Of the three to close two are in a high street without parking and one is being absorbed by a children's centre next door, so will continue to provide the service as outreach centres."
