An urgent appeal is being made to help save preschool provision in Otley, which is due to be lost after 25 years.

Otley Methodist Preschool will close in July after caring for children for a quarter of a century, but now staff there have launched a bid to set up their own community preschool.

Manager Lisa Hayton is appealing to anyone who can provide premises for the facility to come forward.

She said the church council took the decision last week to close the preschool, mainly because of the administrative burden it placed on the church management committee. “This decision is a great disappointment to us,” she said. “Not only are we losing our jobs, as parents we fully understand the inconvenience this will cause parents in trying to find preschool provision for their children from September 2012.

“We have presented a number of options to the church committee to try to ensure that the preschool can continue to operate after July, but these have, regretfully, been turned down."

Read more in the Wharfedale Observer.