A HASLEMERE children’s centre is one of 31 threatened with closure by Surrey County Council in swingeing cuts to save more than £200million by 2021.

Tennyson’s Sure Start Children’s Centre, based at and administered by St Bartholomew’s Primary School, has been supporting families in need living in Haslemere and Hindhead for nine years.

The centre currently supports 880 children under five years old.

It is one of seven children centres in the borough of Waverley funded by the county council, which proposes shutting three of them and reducing services in a further two.

If the proposals are agreed, Waverley residents will be served by two Sure Start children’s centres – Loseley Fields, in Godalming, and Hale, in Farnham.

Those two towns will also retain two other existing children’s centres at Wharf Nursery School and Potters Gate, but they will become ‘satellites’ offering fewer services.

Haslemere Town Council has expressed concern over the loss of such a facililty. A spokesman said this week: “Haslemere Town Council is extremely concerned to hear of the proposed closure of the Tennyson’s Sure Start Children’s Centre.

“We will seek to understand the impact this will have on the community and consider a response to be submitted to Surrey County Council before the January 4 deadline.”

Justifying the loss of the borough’s five full-time children’s centres, the county council said: “Waverley is a borough in Surrey where there are very few young children living in workless or low income households.”

Surrey’s proposed children’s centres cutbacks are just one of five key services that will be impacted.

The county council’s public consultation launched on Tuesday wants the public’s views on:–

* Family resilience children’s centres

* Concessionary bus travel

* Special educational needs and

disabilities

* Libraries and cultural services

* Community recycling centres.

The authority says it is facing ‘huge financial pressures’ due to reducing government grant, despite growing demand for children’s and adult care services.

Surrey says it has saved £540million from its annual budget since 2010 but admitted “the pressures are continuing to grow”. It still needs to save more than £200million by 2021.

Three options concerning community recycling centres, propose shutting either four or six ‘less used’ tips at Cranleigh, Farnham, Chertsey,Bagshot, Dorking and Warlingham.

Closing four centres would save at least £500,000 a year and closing six would save around £800,000 a year.

Changes proposed to concessionary bus travel in Surrey, include stopping funding free bus travel for disabled people before 9.30am and after 11pm on weekdays – and no longer providing a free pass for a companion, making an estimated saving of around £400,000 a year.

Five guiding principles are proposed in a new draft strategy for children with special educational needs and disabilities to “avoid more costly services being needed in future,” with the warning that “rising demand is not matched by government funding.”

Library proposals also comprise five principles to guide “reshaping of services to ensure they thrive in the future,” noting there has been a 25 per cent drop in visits since 2010.

Surrey spends more on libraries than similar councils – £14 per person compared with an average of £9.89.

Launching the consultation, council leader David Hodge said: “The aim is to transform the support provided by all of us to residents and communities, but to get there we’ll need to take some very difficult decisions.

“By pulling together with other organisations in Surrey and working better with you and your communities, we can provide the best possible support with the resources available to us, especially to those that are most vulnerable.”

Surrey CC is also proposing relocating its headquarters in Kingston-upon-Thames.