A PRE-SCHOOL says it is being driven out of business by a rent increase and competition from primary schools with their own nursery classes.

Busy Bees has been based in a hall behind the Our Lady of Canvey and the English Martyrs Church, in Long Road, Canvey for 25 years.

Now those running the nursery say a combination of falling attendances and soaring rents has left it struggling.

Tracy Marley, assistant manager, fears if more parents don’t bring their children there, closure will be inevitable, putting seven people out of work.

She said: “Last term, we were full, but the schools have taken 15 of our older children, so we are down to the two and three-year-olds. Parents just can’t afford to send them any more.

“It’s getting worrying now. Numbers have been low before, but not this low.”

Mrs Marley suspects many parents are choosing to send their children to pre-schools attached to the island’s primary schools in the hope it will help them secure school places there, too.

She added: “Just because a child goes to the pre-school in a school, there is no guarantee they will get into a school.

“That is what a lot of our problem is. Parents are putting them into pre-schools at schools, thinking they have a place in the school but it is not guaranteed.”

The Roman Catholic church where Busy Bees is based says the nursery hasn’t had a rent increase in five years and is still getting a special, reduced rate.

Alfred Wong, parish administrator, said: “As a charity, we are not supposed to favour a business.

“We have bent over backwards, and even advertised in the church newsletter for the past seven weeks to help it out.

“We have no choice. Things have gone up. It will be a shame if it has to close, so we hope they get a better response.”