Dear Parents and Friends,

sorry for the lack of communication over the past few months. The situation has been very unclear with conflicting information about when Islamia school is vacating the building. However we've now been told that Islamia will definitely be moving out in July 2013 and therefore understand that Brent are not planning to renew the Hopscotch lease. The situation is now urgent. Unless Hopscotch can secure its future in the next few months it will be impossible to  continue beyond July 2013.

Since Brent council's argument is that the building will be under-utilised once Islamia move out and therefore ‘subjected to disposal’ (ie: put for sale), our plan is to put together a proposal to take over the whole building. We are already talking to potential partners but if you know of anyone who could partner with Hopscotch to use the upper floors of the building please get in touch.

In the meantime, we need to keep the pressure up on the council to accept such a proposal and/or give Hopscotch more time to find alternative premises. Our petition gained over 800 signatures and has
been presented to the council - but we need to keep on reminding them how valuable Hopscotch is and gather as much support as possible.

Please contact your local councillors and MP, find out where they stand on the issue (some are already very supportive such as the Brondesbury Ward coucillors, others less so). Let them know how important Hopscotch is and urge them to do everything they can to save it.

As well as writing to your own councillors, the following are the key members of the Brent Executive:

Cllr George Crane is in charge of Regeneration so we think he's ultimately the one who will decide what happens. But the future of Hopscotch is about much more than property and the council need to understand that.

Cllr Mary Arnold represents Kilburn ward and is also in charge of Children and Family policy for Brent, so she'll have a significant influence on the decision.

Please email / write / phone / visit (all councillors have surgeries where you can put your case in person) so they know how many people care about Hopscotch.

Their emails are:
cllr.george.crane@brent.gov.uk
cllr.mary.arnold@brent.gov.uk


 The local MPs are:
Glenda Jackson: http://www.glenda-jackson.co.uk/
jacksong@parliament.uk

and Sarah Teather: http://brentlibdems.org.uk/en/
teathers@parliament.uk

 If you're in Sarah Teather's constituency please do get in touch as we're keen to get her involved and there are fewer parents in her constituency.

We need to get press coverage of the situation so if you have any media contacts please sound them out and/or let us know. Of course, any celebrity involvement always gets the press interested so if anyone knows any of the famous parents in the area please respectfully see if they could lend any support to this much loved nursery.

If anyone is involved in any of the local political parties please do get in touch, as it would be good to find out where local members stand on the issue.

The other option for Hopscotch is to move so if you know of anywhere in the local area that could be suitable and might be available then let us know.

Thank you for your support,

Save Hopscotch Campaign
info@savehopscotch.org.uk