ABC receiver threatens to sue for toys

ABC Learning's receiver is threatening to sue a rival childcare operator for the return of toys and playground equipment, after parents rallied to rescue a failed ABC centre and keep it running under new management.

ABC Learning's receiver is threatening to sue a rival childcare operator for the return of toys and playground equipment, after parents rallied to rescue a failed ABC centre and keep it running under new management.

ABC lost the tug-of-war over its Harrington Park North centre in Sydney's west when the building's landlord managed to keep itopen with the same children and staff.

The NSW Department of Community Services fast-tracked a licensing application to let landlord Martin Downs take over the centre after ABC pulled the plug on New Year's Eve.

Mr Downs said yesterday that the receiver, McGrathNicol, had ignored his offer to buy back the centre when ABC fell into receivership two months ago, so he had taken it over for free.

He said McGrathNicol was threatening to take him to the NSW Supreme Court unless he returned toys and equipment.

Mr Downs hired security guards to stop ABC's removalists shifting items from the centre after Christmas.

He said he had kept the equipment because ABC had pulled out of a seven-year, $100,000 annual lease.

A spokesman for McGrathNicol yesterday confirmed the legal action, saying the centre still had some toys and equipment that had been paid for and installed by ABC Learning.

"When the centre closed, the intention was that these toys and equipment would be transferred for the continuing benefit of children in ABC centres," he said.

"The receiver would clearly prefer to settle this matter in a reasonable manner and would like to have the toys and equipment back for use at ABC centres, or alternatively have a reasonable offer made for them."

The centre has been rebranded Bambino's, to the delight of parents who refused ABC's offer to transfer their children to two other ABC-run centres in the district.

Sheereen Brunetta is thrilled her four-year-old daughter, Katie, can stay with the same staff and friends.

"It's great news for the parents and the teachers and, more than anything, it's good for the kids," she said yesterday.

"Everything will be the same so they'll be safe and secure in a familiar environment. It just proves that big corporations don't always win."

Ms Brunetta, a primary school teacher, urged parents to rally behind any childcare operators trying to take over failing ABC centres, saying: "We can't rely on the Government to help us out."

Mr Downs said only one child had transferred to the rival ABC centres. "The parents could have walked out and gone to those two other centres but I'm grateful they hung around and had faith."

He said DOCS had fast-tracked his licence, a process that normally took three months, in just three weeks.

The Harrington Park North centre was among 55 that closed on New Year's Eve when the receiver merged them with other ABC centres nearby.

Twenty-five of the defunct centres were in buildings owned by Austock's Australian Education Trust, which is in talks with other childcare operators in a bid to reopen as many as possible.

Austock owns one in three of the 241 unprofitable ABC centres that have been bundled into a subsidiary company, the ABC2 Group, to be kept open until March 31 with $34 million in federal Government funding.

Austock management yesterday met the court-appointed receiver of the ABC2 Group, Stephen Parbery of PPB, to discuss ways to keep the centres running beyond March.