Belleville council votes against revisiting Thurlow daycare proposal

By John Moodie

BELLEVILLE – A motion to revisit a proposal for a daycare on Maitland Drive in Thurlow was struck down by Belleville city council Monday night.

Councillor Jodie Jenkins asked council to send the proposal back to planning committee for reconsideration, but the motion was defeated in a close vote 5-4.

Last week, a Belleville planning committee decided against the proceeding with the proposal to open First Adventure Daycare.

Jenkins said he felt the planning committee made the wrong decision.

“This seemed to me to be one of the better places out of the ones they were proposing,” he said.

Councillor Jack Miller voted against the motion. Miller said he didn’t see why it would need to be reconsidered when there was no new information.

“If you are going to send it back, usually you send it back with new information for reconsideration,” said Miller “There was nothing new put forward so I didn’t see why the planning committee would change their mind.”

Councillor Jackie Denyes said many residents who took part in the original planning committee meeting raised safety concerns about putting a daycare on Maitland Drive .

“It is right on a very busy corner,” said Denyes “the majority was against the location. They were not against childcare. Everybody was concerned about the safety.”

“There is a lot of traffic that goes through there. There are school buses that stop there. It does present a real safety problem,” said Miller.

Though residents were concerned about safety there were others that did not want to see their neighbourhood re-zoned for daycare.

“When you have that many people who live in the community, who say they don’t want something, then I don’t think it’s fair to jam it down their throats,” said Miller.