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Room to grow has become a problem for a South Canterbury early learning centre, which is now searching for land to build a new home after outgrowing its current facility.
Twizel Early Learning Centre (TELC) is a community-owned facility catering for children ages 0-6.
TELC board chairperson Kinsey Rushton said the centre had outgrown its current site at 1 Market St.
"We have two rooms. The first room is [for] 3 months to 2-year-olds and then [those aged] 2 to 6 in our bigger room.
“We currently have waitlists in both rooms and are even running out of space for things like resources. You open up a cupboard and it's just full to the brim and you're like, ‘oh, where am I going to put anything?’.
"It’s just too small for us now and we’re currently the only service provide of under-2s in Twizel. We do have a kindergarten here, but they only do from 2 to 6.”
Mrs Rushton said they were putting the call out to the community to assist with a search for land.
"We're open to purchasing land or even if it was on a lease, but fixed on a 100-year lease or something like that.
"Just so that if we need to go to the bank for money, if we can't fundraise enough and we have to get a bank loan, we need that bit of stability. We're not ruling anything out.
"I think the ultimate for us would be if we could find a way to buy land. Realistically, it probably has to be under market value and I don't know if there's many people that want to just give it away as such.”
The board had so far raised about $300,000 to go towards the project, she said.
"If we can find the right section and somebody gave it to us for $300,000 in a perfect world, then all we'd have to do is fundraise for the build as well as approach different charities, trusts and organisations to help cover that cost.
"The boards before us have done amazing work to get us to that, because that's based off their fundraising.
"It's been years in the making, long before I even moved to Twizel. So it would be really nice to see something come of everybody else's hard work as well.”
She said while they would not rule it out, it would be difficult to expand the centre’s current facility as 80% of its land was owned by the Mackenzie District Council while the other 20% was Ministry of Education land.
"We have already approached the ministry for more land and they were kind of like ‘no, we need it for our school builds and renos and things like that’.
"So there is no more room to grow per se, so we’re on the hunt.
"We're a little bit, I wouldn't say desperate, but we would love to be able to source some land and build a new purpose-built centre. Possibly with the potential of making it an under-5s hub.”
She said a new and bigger facility would be a big benefit to the Twizel community.
“We've had quite a few families who have inquired because they're looking at moving to Twizel.
"They go on the waitlist and then when we ring them up … they say they didn’t end up moving because they couldn’t get childcare.
"When I first moved into town two years ago, my second child was under 2 and there was a waitlist for the under-2s . I was able to get my oldest in straight away but I had to keep my second child home for eight or nine months before the space became available.
"I was lucky enough that I could work from home and juggle both. But a lot of people don't have that as an option.”
The hope was to get a project agreed and under way in the next five years.
“I feel like completed might be a little bit extreme, but if it could be under way within the next five years, I think that would really help the community push forward.
"It really is the sooner the better but equally, it obviously takes time to source the land and get the build under way.”
- Anyone wanting to discuss a potential proposition can do so by emailing Mrs Rushton at board@telc.org.nz