A disused bowls club in Jubilee Park has been renovated and has reopened as a nursery for children aged between two and five.
After years of break-ins and vandalism Enfield Council and business owner, Samina Shabir agreed to convert the property so it could offer high-quality education to local families at the heart of the community.
The old pavilion building was renovated by Mrs Shabir and her team, who added new floors and extensively redecorated,
Ofsted consequently gave the nursery the green light to open and it started taking children in January. Now the facility is providing a high-quality early years education to the children there and the presence of the nursery has resulted in a reduction in reports of anti-social behaviour in Jubilee Park.
Enfield Council Leader, Cllr Nesil Calışkan, visited the nursery on Monday (11 March) and met staff and pupils.
She said: “This is a marvellous facility that has been supplied through genuine partnership working and which delivers clear benefits to the community.
“We review the sites owned by the Council on an ongoing basis and established we could utilise the abandoned bowls club and use it as a genuine community asset.
Research has shown that children who attend early years education have a higher chance of gaining more GCSEs and going on to obtain a higher salary, improving their quality of life in the future. So this decision really is one that the Council has taken with short, medium and long term goals in mind.
This project is providing revenue to the Council and is bringing multiple benefits to parents, children and the wider community; it is a win for everyone and is a perfect demonstration of how reviewing our underutilised assets can deliver enormous benefits.”