Town of Bassendean Wind In The Willows childcare centres could be amalgamated after sale abandoned

The Town of Bassendean is considering combining two child care centers after abandoning plans to sell them.

The decision, taken at the town’s meeting on April 28, comes after a bid for the sale of the Wind In The Willows centers in Bassendean and Ashfield collapsed following a strong community backlash that forced private buyer Cha Cha Cha Group Pty Ltd to withdraw its offer in March.

Parents felt “blindsided” after receiving a letter from the town saying it was offering to sell the nonprofit service for $2.5 million and giving parents only two weeks to give feedback.

More than 240 public submissions were made during the consultation period and nearly 200 people attended a special constituency meeting in March.

In the letter, parents were told that the Bassendean location would close in mid-2026, while Ashfield would close in late 2026.

The centers will now remain open until at least July 2027, and the town plans to turn them over to a nonprofit early childhood education and child care provider.

A 2026-27 budget will also be prepared to provide financially sustainable childcare services while maintaining standards of care for Wind In The Willows. Parents have been warned this could mean higher fees.

“Our immediate priority is stability for children, families and staff as we work carefully and transparently with the community to secure the sustainable long-term future of Wind In The Willows,” mayor Kath Hamilton said in a statement after the meeting.

As part of long-term planning, the town will consider combining the two centers into a new facility containing at least 80 spaces on Crown land and will seek funding from the State and Federal governments for a new facility.

The town’s statement said it was “inefficient” to operate two separate services from older facilities with licensing capacity limited to 35 locations in Ashfield and 55 locations in Bassendean.

Cr Hamilton told the meeting there were issues with running Wind In The Willows across two sites, including the small number each could hold and changes in legislation.

“This has long been a desire of many councillors, not only of this council but also of previous councils going back a number of years, wanting to combine the two Winds in the Willows into a fit-for-purpose entity,” he said.

“This proposal may not be a be-all and end-all solution, but we need to move forward with some kind of proposal.

“There is no way the town can operate two Wind in the Willows in their current form and make enough profit to build a new Wind in the Willows on its own.

“It would have been preferable to have it like this: Situation and the Federal government has come to our aid with some form of assistance, but there are still nonprofits operating out there that can be creative, provide the opportunity to receive grant funding to finance the construction of a new building.

The selectmen’s meeting pushed for the creation of a family, staff and community advisory group to guide the future of the centres, but the council voted against it, citing governance, compliance, resourcing and liability risks.

Town chief executive Cameron Woods said this would take up staff time and increase costs.

“We’ve been running this for 40 years without community involvement and the community is evaluating the way we’ve been running this, if everything’s been fine for the last 40 years why do you suddenly need an advisory group?” he said.

Cr Ken John’s proposal for the town to establish an advisory group received no support.

Cr John said the community had made it clear it wanted to cooperate with the town.

“They were pretty reasonable and came to us with a pretty clear hand gesture saying ‘we want this to work and cooperate with you,'” he said.

“They’re knocking on our door and that’s a clear sign to them that we don’t want to listen.”

Deputy mayor Paul Poliwka said the council’s decision didn’t mean it wasn’t listening, but said the advisory group wasn’t the right way to go.

The council then voted to develop a “transparency statement” to explain what the town was doing.

Bassendean MLA Dave Kelly, who attended the meeting, told the council it needed to inform the community about its plans.

“One of the issues that has caused so much concern is the lack of consultation that led to the original decision,” he said.

“If you don’t like the advisory group that was voted on at the special selectmen meeting, then I think the council would be wise to find a different form of consultation.

“I think there is some bridge construction that can be done usefully now.”

Mr Kelly also warned that the July 2027 handover date was an unrealistic time frame to expect any State or Federal assistance.

“The State and Federal budgets are about to be distributed. There won’t be another budget until about the same time next year. So I think it’s completely unrealistic to seriously consider any State or Federal budget.” Federal “We will definitely provide financing to build a new building,” he said.

“And that creates a lot of uncertainty for staff. One of the tragedies of this process is that your staff can’t see that they have a safe workplace.”

He asked whether there had been any consultation with the United Workers Union, which represents Wind In The Willows staff.

Mr Woods said the council had not yet made a decision when the question was asked.

“Then why would we give the union 14 months notice for a decision that has not been taken?” he said.

Mr Kelly said he would not give a lecture on the “benefits of early consultation”, prompting Mr Woods to say he would not accept a speech from Mr Kelly.

Pandora Sullivan, whose child attends Wind In The Willows, said at the meeting that she was disappointed the town did not consider running the centers.

“Wind In The Willows has served this community for nearly 50 years. It has been profitable and financially sustainable in the past,” he said.

“The families who used it, the staff who worked here and the community members who cared about it just didn’t want it to be given to someone else.

“They also wanted to be given a fair chance for it to survive under the stewardship of the town that has always run it. In my opinion, it wasn’t given that fair chance.”