Campaigners have moved one step closer to reversing the decision to cut £2.3m from the budget for Children's Centres following a decision by a watchdog group of Councillors to refer the decision back to the B&NES Cabinet.

At a meeting on Monday 25th November, the Council's Early Years, Children and Youth Panel voted in favour of upholding a call-in of a decision by the authority's Liberal Democrat Cabinet to push ahead with plans to cut the Council's Children's Centres budget by up to 38%.

The committee's three Conservative Councillors and one Labour member voted in favour of upholding the call-in, with the panel's three Liberal Democrat Councillors voting against. The outcome means that the matter will now be referred back to the authority's Liberal Democrat Cabinet, who will then have an opportunity to reconsider their original decision.

Cllr Liz Hardman (Labour), who has been campaigning against the cuts, said: "The Cabinet has still not answered the questions about the future of Children's Centres, including which services will be provided, who will run the Children's Centres and to whom these services will be available. Either the Cabinet has no idea how severe these cuts will be and what impact the cuts will have on our communities, or they are not telling us.

"Furthermore, it is unclear whether the Cabinet member responsible speaks on behalf of the whole Lib-Dem Cabinet, many of whom have

appeared distinctly lukewarm about Children's Centres. The fact is, the savage cuts to Children's Centres are totally disproportionate and dwarf all other cuts elsewhere. I am very pleased that the call-in was upheld, which means that the Cabinet must now

reconsider its decision to cut £2.3m from the budget for Children's Centres."

Conservative Group Leader, Councillor Tim Warren, spoke at the meeting, urging the panel to send the matter back to the Cabinet. He said afterwards: "I'm very pleased that the panel decided to uphold this call-in. Families throughout the area are deeply concerned by the Council's plans to cut the Children's Centres' budget so dramatically and B&NES has so far failed to provide any reassurance over what services will remain and who will be able to access them.

"By sending this decision back to the Council's Cabinet, it will allow the Lib-Dems to show that they are listening to residents' concerns, clarify what services will be provided and give a commitment to look again at the scale of cuts currently proposed."