STUDLEY Children's Centre will close as part of controversial plans to "redesign" services for children and their families.

A decision was made by Warwickshire County Council at a meeting last week.

It follows a meeting on November 9 when the council voted to close nine children's centres, including the one in Studley, on High Street.

Councillors did discuss whether money from the council’s reserves could be used to keep all existing children’s centres open in the short term but this was rejected by the Conservative controlled authority.

The aim is to try to save £1.12million from its children's budget.

Commenting on the outcome, councillor Jeff Morgan, portfolio holder for children’s services, said the council has been working on a transformation plan for children’s centres for three years.

“We have to act now – we cannot avoid making difficult decisions," he said.

"If we continue to simply patch things over, and not take a more fundamental approach to transforming services, we will quickly be in a situation where there is no planned future for those sites that we will not be taking on ourselves.

“Where we are not proposing to retain current provisions, we are working with the providers to consider any possible options including them or other partners such as schools or community groups taking on the running of the service."