'End of an era': Lollipop Early Learning Centre to be wound up after almost 50 years in community

Lollipop Early Learning Centre announced it would close by the end of 2023 after almost 50 years in the community, just weeks after a new high-rise tower displaced the centre’s parking.

Jenny Kitchin, CEO of Lollipop operator Woden Community Service (WCS), said it was a very difficult decision to close the centre, which had been operating at a financial loss for many years.

“We’ve continued to keep it open because we feel really committed to the parents and the children there,” she said. “It has always been difficult to keep the numbers up, particularly because of the physical access reasons.”

Ms Kitchin said parents had always faced a challenge picking up or dropping off their children because the car park was shared with other local businesses.

However, earlier this month, the parking lot on the western side of Woden town centre was closed off due to demolition work making way for a new high-rise apartment tower.

WCS approached the ACT Government to ask if it could find another site for the childcare centre prior to construction commencing, but was unsuccessful.

“Parking has always been a bit of a challenge, but manageable,” parent Jenny Loutit said. “Since the construction closed the car park, it’s been a real pain.”

“That wouldn’t have impacted our decision to stay at Lollipop, but I can see how it might be a bit of a disincentive for new families.”

The alternative was for parents to park in the Westfield Woden parking complex and escort their children by foot more than 100 metres to the childcare centre’s doors.

Ms Kitchin said the other major reason behind the centre’s decreasing enrolment was an overabundance of about 15 childcare centres within a five-kilometre radius of the Lollipop centre.

“There are no restrictions on the planning and location of childcare centres,” she said. “That’s an issue that a number of childcare providers have raised with the ACT Government over many years.”

Ms Kitchin said WCS announced the closure early so parents would have the next four to five months to weigh up their options on where they would like to send their children from 2024.

She said WCS’ nearby Lyons Centre at the Lyons Early Childhood School would have enough vacancies to accommodate Lollipop’s approximately 60 children between six weeks and five years old.

“We will make quite sure that we can actually accommodate every child and some parents might want to move earlier rather than later, so we can work with that,” she said.

Lollipop staff were notified the day before the centre’s closure was made public and told they would be given every opportunity for redeployment at Lyons or elsewhere.

“I think for a lot of people it’s a sentimental and sad impact,” Ms Kitchin said. “It is very much the end of an era for our organisation and for this community.”

Ms Loutit, whose two-year-old daughter has attended Lollipop since she was six months old, said her daughter loved the centre.

“They’ve been affordable and provide really great care and not as many options fit that bill as we would like in Canberra,” she said.

“So it’s just overall quite sad for ourselves, but I also feel like it’s a bit of a loss for the Canberra daycare community.”