A FORMER employee of Piggy Banks Day Care Nursery, in Wellington Lane, Farnham, was devastated after being told by management that the company would be entering liquidation and that they were all made redundant.

Amber Hill, one of the last employees of Piggy Banks, informed The Herald that during a meeting which took place in November staff members were told that they no longer had jobs and due to financial issues the business had to be declared bankrupt.

It was as of midnight that same night the company was entering liquidation.

Staff were unable to say goodbye to the children or parents, and were asked to grab their stuff, the children’s art work and then say their goodbyes.

Half of the parents received a letter by courier that evening, while others turned up at the nursery the next morning not knowing what had happened, and found the nursery was shut – leaving parents confused, stranded and having to miss work.

Amber said: “It was a massive shock, we are all still so upset by the whole thing. We all loved the nursery, children, parents and working together. We had an amazing team. We all got made redundant and missed out on saying goodbye to the children we had looked after and loved like they were our own.

“Parents were trying to get hold of us and we had to ignore it, which made them rightfully angry. The staff were told we weren’t allowed to speak to the parents as it would affect our pay – wish turned out to be false.

“One of my colleagues rang the legal team who said that we were allowed to speak to parents and we could attend a meeting with them that was being held at the nursery that day.

“We went to the meeting and told parents we were sorry and told them our story. The parents were absolutely amazing. They were crying and giving us cuddles, they all took our numbers for babysitting and in case they heard of any jobs going.”

In a final farewell, former staff members threw a party for the parents and children, which took place at Hale Village Hall – so that staff, children and parents got the farewell that they deserved. They hired a bouncy castle, a photographer, train set, toys and Santa Claus even dropped in for a visit.

Amber said that getting the chance to say goodbye meant the world to all of them and would make their Christmas.

The Herald was unable to contact the owner of the nursery, Mrs Patricia Banks.