The owner of a nursery facing eviction from its long-term home has disputed claims the pre-school building is unsafe.

Youngsters had been due to return to Sunflower Nursery in Milton Mount Hall in Gravesend last week, until staff and parents were told the landlord - the United Reformed Church - was to dispose of the building.

The news left staff and parents devastated over the loss of an integral part of the community, and owner Jacqui Pickering said she would seek legal advice.

The church confirmed organisations using the hall had been told to leave the building as it was in need of major renovation and becoming dangerous to use.

But Jacquie, who has run Sunflower Nursery at the site for 26 years, has since questioned those claims.

"I have never been informed that the building is unsafe and becoming dangerous," she said.

"The building has not altered in all the years I have been there, in those years the church has done no maintenance leaving it all to my husband to do.

"Also, any major work has been organised and paid for by others.

"We paid for the rewiring to be done, and grants were given by KCC (Kent County Council) for windows and doors to be replaced and painting inside done by us and a team from a Bluewater scheme.

"The only thing the church has paid for is a side wall in the grounds that was knocked down by a company who were employed to cut the trees down."

She said the building had never been used as a church, and questioned the church's assertion that they had given three weeks' notice for building users.

St Paul’s United Reformed Church (URC) insisted they had been given notice, and that the notice period was extended to the end of September.

'Any major work has been organised and paid for by others...'

A statement from The Revd Bridget Banks, moderator of the United Reformed Church’s Southern Synod, added: "The church has been always been supportive of users of the hall, including allowing Sunflower Nursery to use the hall free of charge for five months from March to August.

"St Paul’s is extremely sad to be closing a hall that has been serving the community since the 1960s and that, in these unprecedented times, it cannot afford the extensive remedial works, maintenance and insurance costs.

"Of the two users of the hall, one has already moved on, and we continue to hope and pray that Sunflower Nursery is able to find an alternative venue quickly so that it can continue to provide the valuable service it provides to the community."

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