SUPPORT to keep a popular nursery open is gathering momentum, with parents collecting signatures and an MP stepping in to save it.

A petition to keep the nursery open has 300 signatures from parents, who view the Toy Box nursery at Ashen Drive Community Hall, Ashen Drive, Dartford, as one of the best in the area.

Christchurch Church committee, which owns the building, announced plans to knock down the building last March because it cannot afford to update and maintain it.

Toy Box will have to move out by July 2004 and it is feared the nursery’s days are numbered as the search for new premises continues.

Founder and headteacher June Mace, 64, said: “We are a thriving group but there’s no other facility in this area. There’s just nothing here.” The nursery serves parents from west Dartford, Bexley and Crayford and currently has 68 three to five-year-olds attending, with a full waiting list to 2005.

Dartford MP Dr Howard Stoate, whose two children attended the nursery, hopes to change the church’s decision and also get reassurance from Dartford Council a community hall will remain there.

There are no other halls in the area so an alternative venue us likely to be further afield.

Mum-of three Helen Kemp, 33, of Princes Road, says the 29-year-old nursery has been “fantastic” at looking after her four-year-old autistic son.

She said: “You can’t just shut it and provide nothing in its place. There’s nowhere else in this part of Dartford and it seems such a shame all these trained teachers with an awful lot of experience could be lost.” The Rev David Kipley, of Christchurch, Shepherds Lane, said the church could not afford the experts needed to deal with asbestos in the building for necessary refurbishments.

He hopes the £60,000 to demolish the hall will be recouped when selling the land.

He has been in touch with Dartford Council about the site.

But the council told him they do not have the money available to get involved.

He hopes other agencies will wish to get involved instead.