THE fight is on to build a dedicated children's centre in Axbridge to serve families across the Cheddar area. The new centre would provide a wide range of services for children and parents.

THE fight is on to build a dedicated children's centre in Axbridge to serve families across the Cheddar area.The new centre would provide a wide range of services for children and parents. It would include childcare services for infants aged 0-4 between 8am-6pm on weekdays.Staffed by nurses, health visitors, occupational and speech therapists, it would also offer parenting classes and offer help with jobs to get parents back into work.Somerset County Council currently plans to build the centre in Burnham by 2008 to provide a comprehensive range of facilities for families.But Somerset councillor Dawn Hill has pledged to fight to bring the centre to Axbridge, which she thinks is a better location than Burnham.Cllr Hill said: "The new centre should go to Axbridge because to me it is much more central to both settlements, Cheddar and Burnham, which the centre is being built to serve. "From Axbridge the centre would be much better at serving rural areas which often have no bus service."It could go in Cheddar, but then you are making it difficult for people in Burnham to get to. Axbridge is a good halfway house."There's already one in Highbridge and I fail to understand why the new one should be built in Burnham."She said she would be "nagging" the council to see sense over the location of the new centre.Somerset County Council is building children's centres around the county. A spokesman said that Burnham was chosen partly because it has higher levels of social deprivation than Axbridge.