Empty Orkney nursery should be run by council, councillors say

Kirkwall’s new nursery should be run by the council, according to local councillors.

Elected members on the Policy and Resources committee discussed the matter behind closed doors on Tuesday. The report they viewed set out “all options available”.

This included re-running procurement processes to find an operator, running the nursery as a council service and repurposing the building.

After a vote, councillors went with the officer recommendation to run the nursery as a council service.

That recommendation will now go to a full council meeting of the council on March 10.

A council spokesperson said: “As there are staffing implications attached to this, it would be inappropriate for further details of arrangements to be given at this time before discussions with staff have taken place.

“More details will be shared with key stakeholders and the wider public in due course.”

The council has failed to attract a private operator for the nursery twice. It carried out two tender exercises, offering a contract worth £6.45m.

The council committed to building the new, 51-place nursery beside Orkney UHI in June 2020.

It was completed in May last year, with the final price tag being £3.12m.

Since August 2021, the council has been running the Willow Tree Nursery, one of the units at the Old Papdale Halls of Residence.

However, it has wanted to demolish the halls since 2019. The move to the new nursery will finally allow that work to go ahead.