Alpha Nurseries: Ipswich based company announces closure

Alpha runs nurseries in Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Kent, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire

A company that provides nursery and after-school childcare at 22 sites has told parents they have been closed.

Alpha Nurseries, based in Ipswich, provides facilities in eight counties.

The company announced it was "regretfully" having to close immediately due to financial problems.

In a letter, the company said: "Essentially there was no ability for the business to continue to remain open."

Signed by managing director Gerard Dooley, it added: "As a consequence, all nursery facilities will close with effect from today [Friday, 29 December] and will not reopen.

"This was an extremely difficult decision, and was not taken lightly.

"Please accept our sincere apologies for any difficultly which this may cause you and your family, and we hope you are able to secure alternate arrangements as soon as possible."

The Treehouse Nursery, on Clapgate Lane in the Gainsborough area of Ipswich, is one of the sites that has closed

Parents have been told by Alpha that if they are owed any money, then law firm Begbies Traynor would be able to help with inquiries.

Jon, a parent whose child has attended Brambles Day Community Nursery and after school club in Reydon, near Southwold in Suffolk, said it had been "brilliant".

"We used it four days a week… but I know there's families that were told [and] who had a phone call yesterday saying 'can you come and pick your children up because we need to be out by 5 o'clock?'," he said.

He said it would be a "big loss" to the area and finding a new nursery would be "as hard as getting a dentist".

Alpha was founded in 2010 and its first nursery was The Oaks in Felixstowe, with another nursery opening in the same year in Ipswich, where it now has five sites.

The company has nurseries or after-school clubs in:

• Braintree, Essex

• Boston, Lincs

• Dereham, Norfolk

• Diss, Norfolk

• Downham Market, Norfolk

• Felixstowe, Suffolk

• Grantham, Lincs

• Kirton, Lincs

• Ipswich, Suffolk

• Lowestoft, Suffolk

• Martlesham Heath, Suffolk

• Ossett, West Yorkshire

• Reydon, Suffolk

• Sandwich, Kent

• Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs

• Rotherham, South Yorkshire

• Uttoxeter, Staffs

• Woodbridge, Suffolk

The Bluebells Nursery on Bond Street in Ipswich town centre is another of the five services the firm runs in the town