The votes of Labour councillors meant that a bid to get the authority's leaders to rethink the controversial closure of a day nursery proved unsuccessful.

The five Labour councillors on the overview and scrutiny committee all voted against recommending the cabinet, run by their party colleagues, reconsider closing Startpoint Sholing.

The decision by the Labour cabinet, made last month citing the lack of financial viability, was called-in to the committee by Conservative group leader Cllr Peter Baillie.

It led to more than an hour of questions, statements and debate at a meeting on Thursday, with union members protesting outside beforehand.

Cllr Baillie said the administration was making a “lazy” decision rather than trying to find a financial solution.

“There seems to have been very little constructive [discussion] with members of staff about how they would save money, how things could be done differently to improve.

"It is a pretty sad day for this council when we are closing good units and as councillors we are getting told with transformation we are not going to throw the baby out with the bath water but that is exactly what you are doing here.”

A public consultation on the proposal saw an overwhelming response – 95 per cent – opposed to the plans.

Conservative Sholing ward member Cllr Sarah Powell-Vaughan said this now just looked like a “tick box exercise”.

Labour cabinet member for children and learning Cllr Alex Winning said it was a statutory consultation and not a referendum.

Cllr Winning said no solutions came forward to resolve the financial challenges.

The meeting heard the nursery had run at a deficit for many years, with a current shortfall of £202,062 for 2024/25.

The overall cost of shutting down the nursery is £329,740, including notice pay and redundancy costs.

Ali Haydor, of the GMB union, asked what was the point in doing the consultation if it was not going to be respected.

Cllr Winning said it was a “difficult” decision but the consultation response “doesn’t change the landscape we are in”.

No new children were offered a place at the setting in Wood Lane for September.

Mark Roberts, Unison Southampton District branch secretary, said staff at the nursery had no meaningful work to do over the past three months.

“Once you reduce numbers in a setting, the writing is on the wall,” Mr Roberts said.

Carole Charrett, who worked at the nursery, said it always had a long waiting list for places.

“We have people come from other nurseries to our nursery because we are good at our jobs,” she said.

The committee heard that there was one other council-run nursery in the city which was running at a deficit.

Cllr Winning said the provision in Northam had a smaller financial challenge but it was now in a sustainable position.

An alternative proposal had been tabled by Unison for Startpoint Sholing as part of formal staff consultations, which reduced the deficit to £44,000.

The cabinet member said this proposal was ruled out as it was “very ambitious”, still had a shortfall and there was uncertainty over whether it was achievable.

Cllr Winning said the council regularly monitored nursery provision across the city and there was “sufficient” spaces.

Nursery staff member Kerry Bennett said there might be places available elsewhere in the city but they were not affordable for families.

Unison women’s officer Catherine Clark said the council had “washed its hands” of providing a good nursery service at an affordable rate for families.

The scrutiny committee vote saw the five Labour councillors vote to not recommend cabinet reconsider, with two Conservative and one Liberal Democrat voting the other way.