A NURSERY built on the site of a run-down skate park opened yesterday – with help from a children’s TV star.

BBC and CBBC presenter Barney Harwood was drafted in to help celebrate the opening of the £1m facility in Blackbird Leys, Oxford, built by Imagine Co-operative Childcare.

Work on the single-storey nursery, in Cuddesdon Way, began in March. It has places for 72 children from the estate, aged between three months and five years. The nursery has relocated after losing its old home on the nearby Oxford and Cherwell Valley College site.

As the building is on the old skate park site, the company – part of Midcounties Co-operative – has donated £60,000 to Oxford City Council to help build a new area on the estate for skaters.

The council now plans to consult community groups to see how the money should be spent.

As part of the opening celebrations, Mr Harwood read stories to children.

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith and wife and city councillor Val Smith, who live on the estate, joined the event.

Co-op Childcare manager Haydn Lunn said: “It’s a fantastic modern setting which will enable us to deliver the highest standard of care.

“The nursery will welcome 72 children, mostly from the estate, so is central to the community.”

The building uses locally sourced sustainable materials.

An electrical voltage reducer, solar panels and sun tubes will provide renewable energy, and collected rainwater will replace mains water in the toilets.

Blackbird Leys parish councillor Gordon Roper, co-founder of Blackbird Leys Bowls Club, which is next to the nursery, said: “I think it’s absolutely brilliant.

It’s a nice looking building and we have been looking forward to the children moving in.

We might even get a few new members as parents bringing their children to the nursery will also see our club.”

eallen@oxfordmail.co.uk