A home from home childcare setting is opening in Doddington with plans to grow from six children to 40.
Polly Pippins is beginning as a home based child care setting with plans to grove the facility to become a fully registered nursery.
The planning application for Polly Pippins Childcare, run by Diane Oswald, sparked a neighbour’s row when it was discovered the then vice chairman of Fenland District Council Planning Committee urged colleagues to vote against it.
Councillor David Connor, who lives next door and has a strong personal interest in the matter so should not have got involved in the discussion, asked fellow councillors to vote against the application to turn part of her Doddington home into a nursery.
Despite his attempts to thwart it, however, the Benwick Road setting was given the go-ahead in February 2014 by the planning committee and on December 22 it passed the OFSTED registration inspection.
Now, the six-place home care venue is opening its doors for children from Mondays to Fridays from 7am to 6pm.
For children who have settled well and are happy in the setting it will also offer weekend and evening care in special circumstances.
Owner Diane “Polly” Oswald, who ran a chain of three nurseries for ten years in Godmanchester and has written a book for Social Services on safeguarding children, said: “My aim is to create a happy and stimulating, homely environment where children can learn through play.”
She ran the Clarence House chain of nurseries from 1993 to 2003 and also took in emergency foster care children.
After selling the nurseries she worked in a variety of jobs ranging from beauty and holistic therapy, to process mapping for Fenland District Council.
However, she found she still missed childcare work and when her 27 year old daughter suggested she set up again from her home she jumped at the idea.
“I’ve really missed it. I was always very hands on not just an owner sitting in an office, so I can’t wait to get it up and running,” she said.
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