PARENTS are in uproar over plans to close a nursery due to a lack of pupils.

Mums and dads have started a petition to stop the proposed closure of the nursery class at Queen’s Park Primary School in Park Street, Brighton, after the school’s governing body asked Brighton and Hove City Council to hold a consultation about the nursery’s future.

Plans are being made to close the nursery this summer.

Sharon Spencer, from Hollingbury, has started a petition.

She said: “Rather than expediting the closure of the nursery, the governors and school heads should have highlighted budget shortfalls to parents informing them of the problem and taken measures to address the issues before they escalated.”

The 43-year-old media director added: “The communication from the school has been non-existent and the staff and parents have been purposefully left in the dark. There has been little or no advertising, a very poor web presence, no social media and the prospectus is three years out of date.”

There were 50 places available in the school’s nursery class this spring term but only only 19 children enrolled.

Amy Gradidge, 29, a full-time mother of three, from Brighton, said: “I am the parent of a little girl at the nursery and I would like it to be known that they say the proposed closure is about the numbers of children at the nursery but they do not promote our nursery anywhere.

“As a result, a lot of people don’t know about the nursery. There are parents who have been asking about placing their children in the nursery but have not been given any information about how to do so.”

On average, the cost of a nursery class is estimated at £80,000 to £90,000 per annum, depending on levels of staff pay.

A full nursery class will generate an income of around £100,000 per annum.

The 2016/17 budget for Queen’s Park nursery class was £55,270, so the cost to the school’s wider budget is estimated to be around £25,000.

A council spokesman said there were not enough children using the nursery class. The consultation is open until Friday, April 7.

A public meeting to discuss the proposal will be held today at 3.30pm inside the main school building.

To see the petition, visit change.org/p/queens-park-school-save-queen-s-park-nursery.