Fact: Liphook Crescent is our home and has been since 1999 and our son attends the local school. As you can imagine, setting up a quality Nursery is very demanding, with working hours often later than midnight, so we naturally also have living accommodation at the new nursery for our three very young children (4, 2 & almost 1) and ourselves. That makes common sense doesn’t it?

We would have liked to have spent more time at our family home - our children love it and our two eldest little children pine for it regularly - but with neighbours directly at either side of us as well as opposite, all seemingly jointly organising to object and continue to object to our Nursery (e.g. through this forum!), it has become a distinctly frosty experience for our family in that area, perhaps by design. A simple example: Our small son has even been shunned by an elderly widow nearby – previously friendly to him - who, when her husband was alive, had invited our children in for an occasional chocolate biscuit. When our son said hello to her not too long ago as we were walking by, I was shocked when after looking at him she turned her head away and pointedly ignored him, causing him great confusion. This is an example of the atmosphere created by our objecting neighbours, particularly the neighbours opposite us, the B’s, who have been catalytic and quite core to the whole organised campaign of objecting and hostility from the start, and who are are – wait for it – the TLERA street representatives for Liphook Crescent!! Mrs B had even worked – and perhaps still does - at a Dulwich nursery! What stamp of authority do you think they gave to the campaign of objection… the street’s representatives going around encouraging everyone to object and protest? I think this illustrates a sad sort of mob psychology.

So we feel very sad about the whole thing, really, but most of all quite protective to our children. Perhaps things will improve in the future.