An Arrowtown mother spearheading a drive to get $700,000 funding from the Ministry of Education for a new preschool said she was hopeful this time the proposal would be successful.
Juliet Pope and a group of parents representing the Arrowtown Community Preschool were denied the crucial funding in February by the Ministry of Education.
The funding is needed to construct a second daycare facility in the tiny town.
Following a meeting with Clutha-Southland MP Bill English, Mrs Pope said she was instructed to reapply this month and had been urging parents of children either not participating in daycare, or Arrowtown children participating in Queenstown, to contact her.
While the call to action had been met with a "disappointing" response, Mrs Pope said she was "close" to the 200 names she wanted.
"Last year, when we put in an application, we had 148 names of non-participating children [and we were turned down].
"There's . . . a lot more than 200 out there, but we're probably getting close to the 200 now."
Mrs Pope said the data collected from the second survey confirmed what she and the other parents told the ministry in its initial application.
"The ministry prioritises the older children first . . . so that helps our case. Last year 20 [non-participating children] were over 2. This year there are 55 or 60 over 2. That's what I need to show."
Mrs Pope said she had also spent a large amount of time talking to other child-care providers about the size of the waiting list, and the results of those calls worked in her favour.
"There has been a serious shift; it's six months worse than it was last year.
"The wait time was 18 months last year. This year it's 24 months.
"It's all supporting the data that we presented last year [saying] this is what we think is going to happen . . . and it is."
Mrs Pope said she was buoyed after her recent meeting with Mr English, who could "see the need and see how disappointed we were".
"On that basis, I'm more hopeful, although I've also been told from our ministry representative we were next on the list."
Mrs Pope will now compile and analyse all the data for the second application, which needs to be with the Ministry of Education before applications close on April 24
