Clever new 'eco pod', complete with creche, opens at busy children's centre on Milton Keynes estate

A new ‘eco pod’ building is to house everything from messy play sessions to adult education classes on a city estate.

The building opened this week at Squirrels Children’s Centre in Stantonbury, where MK City Council works in partnership with Wood End Infant and Pre-School.

The centre is open Monday to Friday every week and provides a wide range of activities and services for parents, carers and families of children aged from newborn babies to five years.

The areas it covers are Blakelands, Bolbeck, Brook Furlong, Giffard Park, Great Linford, Pineham, Redhouse Park, Stantonbury, Tongwell, Willen and Willen Park.

Activities on offer include wellbeing mornings, story and song sessions, play sessions to help with speech and language, a bumps and baby group and baby massage courses.

The new fully insulated wooden building expands the existing centre and will provide extra space for events and activities, enabling new classes for adults and children to run from the centre. It even includes a creche.

Cllr Zoe Nolan, Cabinet Member for Children and Families, said: “Thanks to our partnership with Wood End Infant and Pre-School, we’ve been able to expand our Children’s Centre which is so important to the local community.”

She added: “It’s a bright and welcoming new space which will be used by local pupils along with children and adults for a wide range of things – from messy play sessions to adult education courses on parenting and childcare.”

The project was funded by the city council using money provided by developers (called ‘Section 106’ funding) which is in place to create or improve infrastructure to benefit local communities.

Claire Wilson, Headteacher at Wood End Infant and Pre-School, said: “We are delighted to have secured the funds to build an additional space that will give Squirrel's Children's Centre the capacity to provide additional sessions and support to the community.

"The new pod will strengthen the offer that the joint working between the Wood End Infant and Pre-School and the Squirrel's Children's Centre already provides and creates a focal point for local families.”