Help Save West Derby Pre School

Where do we begin?

As some may remember back in 2021 we were raising funds for work that needed doing on Bonsall Hall to save it from closing as the church said they could not afford this. The church then informed Carmel and I that if we took on the lease of the building this would save Bonsall from closing and we were to pay for the work ourselves and have a rent free period.

We were both happy with this. A draft contract was drawn up which we agreed on and sent to our solicitors and the Archdiocese Solicitor. Unfortunately, the Archdiocese did not get back to us nor our solicitor to sign the contract (even to this day 2yrs on), therefore the work was never done and we continued paying rent.

Then in July 24 we were called to a meeting at St Paul’s church and had a verbal conversation with Father John who informed us that the Church was selling Bonsall Hall, As you can imagine Carmel and I were in complete shock and just heartbroken.

We asked for a meeting with all involved from the archdiocese to discuss this but no one ever got back to us, and still nobody has.

I sent numerous email, made numerous calls yet still not one person from the archdiocese got back to us to discuss this. We just did not know what was going on. All we wanted was a conversation, a discussion and maybe some options to help us. We just wanted them to listen to us as we had some options but this has been ignored without a care for the impact this could have on our community.

Even to this day we still have had no contact with anyone from the archdiocese, no meeting, no phone calls not even an email. It is absolutely disgraceful how we have been treated.

West Derby preschool has rented Bonsall Hall for the past 35 years - that’s 35 years of rent, of care for the children of our community. Carmel and I along with a few other staff being here the last 25 years. We have 300 plus families that use and need Bonsall and have 18 staff with jobs who depend on this income. Yet no one from the archdiocese cares about all this at all it’s really disappointing.

Now if you are buying a property or business you save over time, and all that we asked for was a little time. Not years, just a few months to save for the deposit that is needed for myself and Carmel to buy Bonsall Hall.

A big mortgage needs a big deposit. Is a few moths really too much to ask after being here for 35 years? In my emails I begged and pleaded to the archdiocese please just give us time before it goes on the market, but as you can guess not one person replied to my email nor got in touch. Absolutely nothing from them.

Then on Monday 22nd October I took a call from the estate agent dealing with the sale - Bonsall Hall was going on the market and lo and behold it was on the market within 24 hours. He said it was being sold with us still as tenants but who knows what the future would hold, but please be assured we are still trying to get the funds together to buy it ourselves then we have no worries for our future.

We already have half the deposit so this is the reason we have set up a go fund me page to raise as much as possible to help towards the rest. This is something that we didn't really want to do but if people can get behind us and help us it gives us a bit more hope of buying the building, saving our community resource, caring for children and preserving jobs.

Please do not be put off by this and start looking for another setting. We need you to fight this with us. We are not giving up on our business, our life our everything. We will not let this community down.

If we were unable to buy the building all money raised will be refunded through our go fund me.