Plans to close a specialist nursery to ease council budget problems have angered staff.

Fourteen jobs will be lost at the Queensway Day Nursery, in Essex Street, Southend, as part of the loss of 60 social services job cuts.

Staff have been warned not to talk to the media about the closure, but one nursery nurse wanted her concerns heard.

She said: "The children will go to other nurseries but some of them cannot cope with being in large groups, so they might not cope."

Verina Weaver, Southend's executive councillor for health and social care, blamed a lack of Government funding and a high demand on social services.

Published Friday January 30, 2004

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