TWO Newport nurseries will merge despite being 2.7 miles apart from each other.

A final decision on controversial plans to merge Kimberley Nursery School and Fairoak Nursery School was made on Wednesday, after no formal objections were received.

The decision was made by Newport City Council’s cabinet member for education, Cllr Gail Giles.

It means the two nurseries will merge to form a single nursery school on the current Fairoak site, in Church Road, Maindee from September 2021.

Newport City Council has undertaken two consultations for the proposal, the latest being a 28-day statutory notice.

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In the first consultation, concerns were raised by parents over the distance between the two nurseries.

An early petition against the merger received more than 1,200 signatures.

The petition had stated: “Kimberley Nursery is a feeder school to our local schools which do not have their own nursery schools attached.

“It’s imperative to keep this nursery school open as so many children and parents rely on the nursery; closing it will negatively impact our community.”

However, no formal objections were received in the final consultation.

The merger comes after declining pupil numbers and an increasing deficit.

The report on the final proposal says Kimberley Nursery School is projected to be in deficit by £125,000 at the end of the 2020/21 financial year.

Fairoak Nursery School, however, is projected to return a surplus of £2,000 for the same period.

The report says this decision could help save the council £65,000 a year.

It says: “The larger Fairoak building is sufficiently large enough to accommodate the children on roll across both schools.

“Kimberley Nursery School has been operating with a worsening deficit budget for the last four years, and currently there is no achievable plan to recover this.

“The communication class hosted at Kimberley Nursery School is a much-needed valuable and beneficial resource providing specialist nursery education to children across Newport.

“Under this proposal, this provision will continue on the Fairoak site.”