A child care centre for up to 100 children proposed for Oamaru is not abnormally large and is in line with many other similar centres in New Zealand, according to the company which wants to build it, Little Wonders Child Care Ltd.
Yesterday, Ben Hurst, part-owner of the company, outlined the proposal for the centre on the corner of Thames and Nen Sts to a Waitaki District Council hearings panel made up of Crs Struan Munro (chairman), Pam Spite and Peter Twiss.
The centre was opposed by Barnardos Early Learning Centre, which questioned whether, because of its size, it could offer quality childcare.
Barnardos also said Little Wonders would draw families from two existing child care services already in central Oamaru, even though they had healthy waiting lists.
Little Wonders already operates, or has plans for, similar-sized centres in New Zealand.
Most of its shareholders are from North Otago, associated with the Hurst family at Papakaio.
Mr Hurst said the company had a 50-place centre at Mt Eden with another 100-place centre to open in Epsom within 18 months.
A 100-place centre was under construction in Cromwell, scheduled for completion in November, and construction should begin in November on a same-sized centre in Dunedin, to be completed early next year.
Little Wonder was looking at expanding, particularly in the South Island, which had a need for more child care centres.
The new Oamaru centre would provide another quality alternative for parents who wanted child care, Mr Hurst said.
It had to meet Ministry of Education licensing requirements.
He believed there was a large, demand for child care in North Otago.
Barnardos teacher Julie Pringle said the new centre would be in close vicinity to two early-learning centres and a newly-licensed play centre.
The two early-learning centres catered for up to 77 children from about 170 families.
She raised issues about the impact of traffic on State Highway 1 (Thames St), particularly fumes, on children; whether it could provide quality education with 100 children attending; and not-for-profit organisations like Barnardos versus privatisation of early education.
"Does operating a 100-place centre with 25 under-2s in one area provide group size that supports quality care and education?" she asked.
However, Cr Munro pointed out that most of the issues raised by Barnardos were not related to effects on the environment and its submission was based on competition, which could not be considered as part of the Little Wonders' discretionary land use resource consent application.
Mr Hurst said the centre had been designed and equipped to provide a high-quality learning environment.
Its design, with four separate rooms to separate children by age group, would ensure manageable group sizes.
"In any case, the Ministry of Education, who are entrusted with ensuring the provision of safe and supportive environments, are the appropriate authority to determine facility size," he said.
Little Wonders' proposal was for a purpose-built, single-storey child care facility which would blend in with surrounding residences.
It would have four large separate indoor activity rooms (each with toilets and washrooms), sleeping area, staff room, office, laundry, kitchen-store, staff toilets and reception area.
The maximum staff at any one time would be 15, including two cooks and an administrator.
Consultant planner Mike Searle recommended the application be granted, subject to 10 conditions, but that is not binding on the hearings panel, which reserved its decision.
