CHIPPENHAM MP Michelle Donelan has pledged to walk the 87 miles of the Kennet & Avon Canal to help raise funds for a small pre-school which needs a new building.

The MP is backing the campaign by Holt Pre-school to raise £200,000 for new facilities to replace their 50-year-old building.

She has committed to walk the length of the Kennet & Avon Canal and will be urging people to sponsor her to raise funds for the pre-school and help meet its target.

The MP has worked with representatives from the tiny village pre-school since November to safeguard its future and secure funding for a new building.

Miss Donelan said: “This is a fantastic community asset that we cannot afford to lose. I have been exploring all avenues to look for sources of funding and will continue to press the case with colleagues in the Department for Education and at Wiltshire Council.

“I am really looking forward to the opportunity to fundraise myself for Holt Pre-School and urge you to follow my progress as I prepare to walk the 87 miles of the Kennet & Avon Canal.”

Miss Donelan is urging any local businesses who could help to come forward and email michelle.donelan.mp@parliament.uk to discuss the opportunity further.

The Holt Pre-school building has reached the end of its life. Having been awarded several grants and thanks to fundraising support so far, they are now at £155,000 towards the £200,000 target and only need to raise a further £45,000.

Miss Donelan added: “Pre-schools are an integral part of the community and it is absolutely essential to enable the provision of a new building for both the children and the community.

“Currently, Wiltshire Council own the building and while there are no funds available to replace the building, the council has recently funded some repairs in the short term; however this is not a sustainable position in the long term.”

Holt Pre-school is run as a not-for-profit company with three directors - Karen Tripp, the pre-school leader, Linda Mead, the deputy leader, and Kate Buckrell, the business manager - and a voluntary fundraising committee.

The school has been in the village for more than 50 years and moved ten years ago from the village hall to its existing second-hand mobile classroom funded by Wiltshire Council on the Holt Primary School site.

Miss Donelan said: “If this valuable community asset were to close, there are a number of families who would not be able to access childcare in other areas as they have no transport and there are very limited bus services in Holt.

“Holt pre-school is repeatedly a parent’s first choice to receive the disability access fund and has many children with special educational needs attend the pre-school.“If the provision were lost, parents with children at the pre-school who do have access to transport would have to find a way to drive out of the village and then back into Holt to take their children to primary school.

“This would increase traffic on the roads, preventing them from walking their child to school and trying to find somewhere to park in the vicinity of the school, which is already not easy.

“The pre-school also offers a breakfast club which allows parents to go to work ahead of the school start time of 8.45am so a number of work opportunities would be compromised.

“The fundraising committee have done an amazing job and applied for many grants and are doing as much fundraising as possible but, as everyone has experienced, they have been very restricted by the pandemic.”

“This has not only impacted group activities but the ability of many families to contribute to the fundraising.”

To find out more, go to https://www.holtpreschool.co.uk/fundraising