Dear Editor:

Daycare is much needed in this city - the daycare a few blocks away does not accept the children under three that are in dire need of more spaces…..

What this community needs is several centres that could provide this kind of care to children under three, and by adding five more spaces to … Family Daycare, this is just beginning to solve the problem.

The city is aware of the daycare shortage and has recently started handing out child-care surveys at the community centres.

But if they oppose this expansion, they are not really acknowledging the problem.

How much of a difference will these five spaces make to a busy neighbourhood lane?

It will provide more parents with the care from a good centre, whose concern for the children and their safety is insurmountable.

I am the mother of a 13-month-old who attends this daycare, and I returned to work when she was 10 months old.

In the past three months, my daughter's daycare experience has been invaluable.

In that time, she has learned how to walk, how to share and is beginning to speak.

Had she not been attending daycare, these things would have still been happening but not at the rate she has been developing.

This has all been accomplished with her in the centre one day a week.

If these spots open up, I will be able to send her to the same daycare for the two days a week that we require, and it would allow more children to go to the daycare, since not everyone needs child care five days a week…..

I think the residents who oppose this daycare because of the noise, traffic and disrepair of the alley should refocus their attentions to make the alley a safe place to drive and make it less accommodating to those wishing to speed through recklessly.