DELIGHTED staff and children at Busy Bees Southwick celebrated the opening of the pre-school’s brand new building on Wednesday, after years of hard work funding the project.

The pre-school, which is based at The Hive in Hollis Way, Southwick, originally started life in the village hall, before moving to a mobile unit at Southwick Primary School in 2006.

Fundraising has been ongoing for several years, but Busy Bees was told two years ago that it either needed to find a new building or shut as the previous building would need to be condemned.

Work started on the new building in July, with the pre-school now equipped with additional toilet facilities, a sensory room and quiet room, plus baby changing units and a revamped outdoor area.

Andrea Steel, who chairs the parents’ committee, said: “We moved from the village hall in Southwick to a second hand mobile unit in 2006 and we were aware at the time it would not have a long life expectancy.

“Unfortunately, that was all that could be afforded at the time. We have been constantly fundraising ever since, doing whatever we could to raise funds, with the plans put in place for the new building two years ago.

“We were faced with the decision two years ago to source a new building or the pre-school would have to shut down as the building would be condemned.

“It was important for us to set out to achieve what we said we would achieve as otherwise Southwick would not have a pre-school, which would be terrible for the village.”

The pre-school, which was judged to be “good” by Ofsted in a recent inspection, opens five days a week during school term times and takes on children from the age of two.

Mrs Steel added: “I have been volunteering at the pre-school for the last two-and-a-half years and nothing has made me happier than seeing the villagers and teachers from the school celebrate the ribbon being cut on the new building.

“All the late nights and tears are worthwhile to see the happy faces of the children and we had some who were there last year and don’t recognise the place. They love the new building and really enjoyed exploring it.

“It has much more room and the sensory room is really important as we do have children with additional needs that will benefit hugely from it. The parents can’t believe how good it looks and the children will even have their own gardening area to plant in.”