Frightened families have voiced their anger over plans to put a drug rehab centre above a nursery.
Step by Step Nursery in Wapping, East London, has 52 children under five in its daily care.
Earlier this month Tower Hamlets Council submitted an application for a drug rehabilitation unit to be based across three floors above the ground floor pre-school.
Parents at the £875 a month nursery staged a demonstration on Saturday morning and were joined by nursery staff, locals, and ward councillors.
Nursery manager Kelly Smith, 47, said: ‘Families are definitely frightened, my staff are definitely frightened. They just don’t know what to expect.
Protesters pictured outside Step by Step Nursery in Wapping, East London where the drug centre is being proposed
Tower Hamlets Council submitted an application for a drug rehabilitation unit to be based across three floors above the ground floor pre-school. (Protesters pictured outside the school)
Tower Hamlets Council has said the proposed service will focus on helping women from marginalised backgrounds and members of the BAME community. (Protesters pictured outside the nursery)
The council insists that visitors will only arrive by appointment only, and that ‘individuals will be assessed to check their suitability’
‘If they lock up at 6.30pm and it’s dark, it’s intimidating if there’s people hanging around. It’s going to make things very awkward.’
Stephanie Kovatchev’s, 36, two-year-old son Adam attends the nursery. The insurance worker organised a demonstration on Saturday morning. She said: ‘How on earth can the council not find a more fitting place than a nursery for a drug rehab centre? We know we need these facilities. This location, however, is wrong.’
There’s growing frustration over how transparent the proposals have been.
Ms Smith, 47, said: ‘We had a meeting with Tower Hamlets, who said it would be used for a ‘community purpose’, with no definitive breakdown of what it was going to be, we didn’t object because we didn’t have any reason to. Then, there was a letter to residents that said we’d agreed to this. That’s when our parents got involved.’
The floors above the nursery are currently empty, in the past they’ve been used for training facilities, a dance school and a children’s centre.
Tower Hamlets Council has said the proposed service will focus on helping women from marginalised backgrounds and members of the BAME community. It currently operates a similar centre in Whitechapel.
Figures shared by Tower Hamlets state that of the 2,127 people who accessed support in the borough in 2023/24, 850 (40 per cent) were from a BAME community, with 465 (22 per cent) being Bangladeshi. In addition, 510 or 24 per cent of the treatment population in 23-24 were women.
The council insists that visitors will only arrive by appointment only, and that ‘individuals will be assessed to check their suitability’.
The floors above the nursery are currently empty, in the past they’ve been used for training facilities, a dance school and a children’s centre
Step by Step Nursery in Wapping, East London , has 52 children under five in its daily care
Parents at the £875 a month nursery staged a demonstration on Saturday morning and were joined by nursery staff, locals, and ward councillors
If plans go ahead, the building will be refurbished so that service users will use a different entrance to parents and staff using the nursery.
Elaine McKenzie, 76, lives just a short walk from the nursery. She said: ‘I don’t mind if there’s a drug rehab centre, but I worry that the nursery could close as a result.
‘This is a purpose-built nursery, but if enough parents decide that they don’t want to send their children there because of this proposal, the fees will go up, and then it will close. It’s just not right.’
Matt Melbye, 48, is the chair of St Katharine’s and Wapping Ward panel. He said: ‘We think that the Council has decided this site is fine based on its centre in Whitechapel, which is next to a nursery – but that’s in a separate building – plus, that centre is on an A road, it’s more accessible. If you put a centre here, you’re asking a lot of the people using the service just to get here.’
Locals have also raised concerns that the property is directly opposite a playground.
Ward councillor Abdal Ullah (Labour) said: ‘We’re definitely not opposed to these facilities. We need these provisions across the borough, but this is not the right location. There’s a playground opposite, there’s a refugee centre next door, there are people living in blocks of flats across the road.’
Parents Lyndon, 54, and 43-year-old Kirstin Coppin’s two-year-old daughter Charlotte attends the nursery, and their six-year-old son Alexander previously attended as well.
The couple, who are both lawyers, said: ‘There’s a school nearby and another nursery around the corner. This road is full of buggies and children and bikes throughout the day. It’s not accessible in terms of transport.’
It wasn’t just families in attendance either, Andrew Bailey, assistant curate at nearby St Peter’s Church, said: ‘Drug rehab centres have their place, they are needed, but this is not the location. We have a lot of families at the church and the safety of the children comes first.’
Interior decorator Tom Pither, 28, echoed those comments, saying: ‘It’s huge to see all of these people here. I think people are more annoyed because there was no notice that this was coming. I’m here to support the community and the people who have kids.’
Furious locals are now penning letters to the council in hopes that the move will be abandoned.
