East Cliff Pre-School react quickly to St Luke's Church hall crash

East Cliff Pre-School use St Luke’s church hall in Winton every weekday during term time, but they were forced to find a new location after a car crashed into the building.

The car damaged the hall’s kitchen and could cost more than £15,000 to repair, but in the short-term, the pre-school had to find a quick solution for new premises.

Gemma Eaton, the executive manager of East Cliff Pre-Schools, said they responded rapidly once they had heard what had happened last Thursday evening.

“We had finished our day, so everybody was at home,” Gemma said.

“The call came through from Martin [St Luke’s church warden] to say that this car had driven into the building. Thankfully nobody was hurt.

“Immediately my manager, Sansha Ellson, got in her car and got down there, so she wanted to assess the damage herself, because they said to us, we wouldn’t be using the hall.”

The pre-school quickly rung around all the parents to inform them of the situation and arranged to move the children and staff to their Bournemouth site, East Cliff United Reform Church.

Gemma said the vicar at the church, Linda, had been “fantastic” in letting them use a room upstairs to deal with the expanded capacity.

“A lot of the children are vulnerable children and special educational needs, so we needed to make sure that this went as smoothly as possible for them,” she said.

“We’ve given free bus passes to some of our families who are unable to travel that distance because they would be walking.

“We didn’t want any of them to miss a day of education, because they are going to school in September, it is so important for them to be school ready.”

The hall is used daily by the pre-school and a host of other community groups, and will be unusable for the foreseeable future, while assessments and repairs are carried out.