Welcome to our Page and thanks for taking the time to help support us 

Responding to a clear need within the Cranham community we have set up ‘Little Explorers’ to offer full and part time care for children aged between 3months to 5 years.  

At Little Explorers we believe that each child's unique needs must always be at the heart of our ethos and practise.

Whilst as a company we are in the infancy stages, our nursery manager has over 18 years’ experience and is fully EYPS qualified.  

Having identified what we and many others believe to be the perfect location we have designed  what we hope to be a fantastic setting for a nursery of the highest calibre.  

An application for planning permission was issued and despite the planning officers ‘recommendation’ for approval, the committee members refused the permission on the following grounds:-  

1.‘The proposal by reason of noise and disturbance arising from the intensification of the use of the property and its curtilage would result in unacceptable levels of noise and disturbance to the detriment of residential amenity’.  

2. The proposal by reason of the extent of parking to the front and rear of the property would adversely affect the character and appearance of the street scene.’ 

Ironically we are opposite Engayne Primary School with parking restrictions (zig zag lines to most of us) already being in place to safeguard local residents.  

In order to minimise any impact from our setting on the local residents, we have also put in place an operational plan that dictates a limited number of children to use the garden at any one time (i.e. reduction of noise), acoustic fencing (reduction of noise) as well as garden apparatus being positioned on the opposite side of the garden, away from the immediate residential neighbour.   Additionally, a travel plan has been prepared and parking restrictions are already in place with the strategy to recruit local people resulting in less traffic.  Furthermore, some parents may choose to drop off children to the school at the same time as the nursery, meaning in this case, there is no ‘extra’ traffic/parking impact whatsoever.

It was felt by the committee members that the impact was too great to the local amenity, despite the parking restrictions that already exist to protect the residents and the fact that the additional noise generated is substantially less than the level generated by the existing school.  

We are therefore in the process of re-applying, based on a reduced parking provision and hope that you will support us through this next step.  

There are many reasons to support us, even if you are not a parent and just believe that local start-up businesses with the right background should be supported. You may be a parent that has had limited options in the past and want to ensure others do not go through the difficulty you had in finding a suitable nursery in our area. 

During the committee meeting the concerns and wishes of the objectors were communicated, we would like to ensure that the ‘voice’ of those wishing to support the nursery are expressed during this next application.  

If you would like to support Little Explorers, there are many ways but no better and more helpful than writing to the planning officer and your local councillors. 

If you do support us or what we are trying to achieve for whatever reason please feel free to write to the following:-  

Planning Control

London Borough of Havering

3rd Floor

Mercury House

Romford

RM1 3SL

Similarly, please feel free to contact your local councillors to voice your opinions.  Should you wish to know which councillors to write to then please feel free to contact us at littleexplorersenquiries@hotmail.co.uk   

Your support is very much appreciated & we thank you for all your help & interest. 

Together and with your help we hope to be able to open a setting that has a positive impact in our community.