The council intends to reduce the number of children’s centres from 16 to nine by merging some together to focus services on places where they are needed the most and to cut down on building and administration costs.
The planned mergers include Southsea with Brambles, Portsea with Somerstown, and Milton Park joining with the Cumberland and Baffins centres. Paulsgrove, Fratton, and Buckland and Landport services will remain as they are.
Parents and children have opposed the mergers by sending a petition of 650 signatures and handprints from the children to the Council.
Lisa Fletcher, 37, who has regularly used the children’s centres said, ‘I've been using Sure Start for over a year. I suffer from post-natal depression and if it was not for Sure Start then I often wonder where I would be at this point in time.
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