The Trinity Methodist Pre-school, which is based in Church Terrace, has closed its doors for the last time on Thursday with celebratory party.

Cambs Times: Trinity Methodist Church Church Terrace, Wisbech. Trinity pre-school closing after 45 year. Pre-school children from over the years and leaders helping to sell the toys and equipment that was used. Picture: Steve Williams.Trinity Methodist Church Church Terrace, Wisbech. Trinity pre-school closing after 45 year. Pre-school children from over the years and leaders helping to sell the toys and equipment that was used. Picture: Steve Williams. (Image: Archant)

And the staff have been holding a sale of equipment to raise funds towards their redundancy as the pre-school is charity-run.

Falling numbers and a lack of new children registering to join the pre-school this September have been blamed for the decision to close.

Sandra Burlingham, who has been with the pre-school for almost 26 years, said: “It was a really hard, and really sad decision to make. But the truth is we just couldn’t afford to carry on as the numbers have kept falling and we have been running on low numbers for quite a long time. There was only six children registered to start in September which meant we wouldn’t receive much funding.

“We have tried to encourage more people to choose us for their children but we had little response so we made the decision to close at an emergency meeting. I think parents want more from their pre-schools than we can offer such as breakfast clubs and after school clubs.

“We had a party for the children on the last day of term (yesterday) and we are selling off the equipment.

We have been selling things during the week and we are here until 3pm today (Friday) and again tomorrow (Saturday) 10am to 3pm any money we raise will go towards our redundancy,” said Sandra.

Four members of staff have lost their jobs as a result of the closure: Kerri Rickett (2 years service), Bekki-Jo Hailes (13 years), Louisa Sargent (7 years) and Sandra (25 years).