By Hayley Robinson

After more than 20 years of operating from a school hall, Borden Village Pre-school is about to branch out on its own.

The pre-school is currently based in Borden Primary School’s hall but over the past five years Ofsted inspectors have made it clear the school needs to get its hall back.

In turn this put pressure on the pre-school to find its own building.

The William Barrow Trust donated a piece of land to them, allowing them to look at having their own building.

Now that dream is a step closer after a planning application for a pre-school building with parking on land next to Borden Primary School’s car park in School Lane, was unanimously approved by Swale council’s planning committee.

Chairman of the pre-school Jack Barbary said: "Everyone is very excited.

"Had Ofsted insisted the primary school took the hall back we may have finished or had to find somewhere else quickly – potentially leaving 26 children with nowhere to go.

"There really was nowhere else in Borden to move to, plus we wanted something we could call our own.

"We have a good relationship with the school and we want that to continue which is why we wanted to set up close to it."

The pre-school now needs to negotiate the lease of the land with the trust and apply to Kent County Council for funding.

Mr Barbary said: "The funding application needs to be in by February 1, and we should know soon after that if we have got the money. We may need to raise some money ourselves to pay for play ground equipment.

"Once we know we have the money we will crack on. We need to clear the site and build the base and once that’s done we can bring in the modular building - which comes in parts and fits together. The building even comes apart which means it can be moved else where if we need to."

Once the base is in place, the project should take 11 weeks to complete and it is hoped to be up and running by September.

"We are extremely grateful to Borden Primary School for allowing us to use their hall and all the other people who have helped and supported us along the way," he added. "Without them this wouldn’t haven’t have happened."

Head teacher of Borden Primary School Allan Ginman said: "I’m pleased for the pre-school and we will continue to work with them. We wish them the best of luck with it all.

"The pre-school has operated from the school for more than 20 years so it has been a longstanding agreement. In those days the school was smaller and had fewer pupils."