AMBITIOUS plans to build a new nursery in Melksham could be scrapped because £700,000 worth of funding hangs in the balance.

Unless the Regional Development Agency (RDA) has a change of heart, Queensway Chapel pre-school may not be able to open a purpose built neighbourhood nursery on land off St Michael's School.

Thousands of pounds worth of funding could be lost because the RDA cannot decide whether nurseries would increase the number of job seekers in the area.

They will now spend more money on a consultation programme to discover what benefits there are.

Adrienne Westbrook, chairman of community partnership Melksham First, said: "We are disappointed. This could jeopardise the Queensway Chapel project but we hope to get cash from a multitude of agencies so that it can still go ahead.

"It is a crazy situation. About £60,000 has been spent on consultation which could have gone towards the capital build."

Mrs Westbrook hopes charity Children in Need will step in and provide the crucial funding but said they would still be pressing ahead with the building of a new £400,000 nursery at Lowbourne Infants School.

Melksham Town Council approved these plans at a meeting on Monday night, welcoming the road safety improvements the project would bring.

Mrs Westbrook said: "We will press ahead because we have to start work in September."

Earlier this year town leaders announced how childcare facilities in the town had been boosted with the award of a £345,000 government grant.

They hoped this, combined

with money from the RDA, would mean up to £1m would be available for the two nursery projects.

The RDA had a pool of £60m to spend in the south west and Melksham was one of the first towns in the region to produce a community plan of wish-list projects.

Low income families and parents with special needs children will benefit from extra nursery spaces, as means-tested places will be offered to help hard-up families escape the breadline.

Area communications co-ordinator Katherine Haines, of the South West Regional Development Agency, said: "The RDA is working with Melksham First to identify aspects of the Melksham nursery project that could attract RDA funding.

"This has been accepted by Melksham First and Wiltshire County Council who have made contingency plans to develop one rather than two nurseries in the town."