Three Acres play group youngsters march to No10

Published: 26th May, 2011
by JOSIE HINTON

AN army of Camden children and their MP will march on Downing Street tomorrow (Friday) to warn David Cameron that they will be left “roaming the streets” by government spending cuts.

Youngsters from the Three Acres play project in Belsize Park plan to take their fight against slashed funding for after-school clubs directly to the Prime Minister’s front door.

Glenda Jackson, Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, will join the children as they deliver a petition and letters urging the PM to put politics aside and think of vulnerable families.

In a letter Chloe Tennerman, 10, writes: “My mother is a single parent and needs the support of Three Acres because she hasn’t got the extra help that a two-parent family would have.

“Three Acres is part of my childhood because I have been going since I was four. If you close Three Acres you shall be demolishing an important part of my youth. 

“Is that what you want to do to the people of Camden?”

Another letter, from Ibbie Harris, 10, adds: “Do you really want the children of Camden to be roaming around the streets where anything can happen to them? 

“Without a safe place to play and nowhere to go while their parents or guardians are at work, that is where we may end up.”

Three Acres runs both breakfast and after-school clubs for children at affordable prices. Parents pay £3.50 for their child to attend the breakfast club or £5.50 after school.

Children take part in activities including woodwork, cookery and painting while improving their social skills. Kirsty Hanley, a teacher at The Rosary School, who will accom­pany the children on their protest, said: “Three Acres is a wonderful resource for working parents on low incomes.”