Council ready to decide on childcare land

Hedland child care options are likely to be boosted tonight with councillors expected to vote in favour of granting a 21-year lease over land in South Hedland to providers Play and Learn.

The long-term lease over Crown land on Hedditch Street, between the RSL and South Hedland Bowling and Tennis Club, is designed to provide certainty for Play and Learn to move ahead with plans to build a $2 million centre.

The new centre, expected to open in 2016, would replace the company's existing facility, which has operated for the past nine years at the Pilbara Institute's South Hedland campus.

Play and Learn managing director Roslyn Thompson said she was confident the venture would be successful because it created more than 30 extra places for Hedland children.

"I see it as a good investment because the community will only need more child care and families these days do really look for quality care and that is something we focus on," she said.

The new centre comes as child care has been a long-running concern in towns across the Pilbara and as demand in Hedland for school-aged places for children between five and 12 currently outstrips supply.

Ms Thompson said her proposed centre would boost options for parents of these children.

She said the proposed centre would accept 90 children, up from the existing 57 places offered by the current Play and Learn centre.

This would include 60 long day care places for children aged from three months to five as well as an additional 30 out-of-school care places for children up to 12.

Yet even with a smooth approvals process, the new centre would not open until at least 2016.

If council votes in favour of granting the lease tonight, it would then go out to public submissions before the planning and development applications process can begin.

Ms Thompson said she was hopeful of opening by April 2016, because she had worked closely with the Town of Port Hedland on the project over the past 18 months.

The company also has about 15 years experience building and operating its own centres in Perth and Kalgoorlie-Boulder.