The loss of a charity's work in the Alton Activity Centre will be a "big shame" according to parents who rely on the service.

Wandsworth Times:

Councillors Jeremy Ambache and Peter Carpenter outside the centre with the petition.

In 2011, it was decided that the contract with Spurgeon's, which runs activities and workshops for children and adults in the Roehampton centre, would cease from March 2016.

December 2015: Alton activity centre could close in Spring ending years of after school and holiday care

Lindsay Turner, who lives on the estate and works in a nearby flower shop, said it had been a vital resource for her two children, aged 15 and six.

She said: "My daughter has been going for 10 years, since she was five and my son goes now and has been going since he was five.

"Lots of my friends' kids go too.

"It is an important resource.

"It is terrible, they are taking away children's centres.

"It is sad really, children are going to miss out.

"I am going to have to arrange for childcare for these two hours while I am still in work"

Nurse and mum-of-two Zara Ali has been part of the door-to-door petitioning started by Councillors Jeremy Ambache and Peter Carpenter and said she would go as far as to collect money to keep the service open.

She said: "I do not know what to do with myself.

"When I pick him up, he sometimes says to me to go home and come back in an hour, he does not want to come home yet.

"You just think it is not on."

Mrs Ali said she may have to consider quitting her job, as working hours that allow her to look after her son in the afternoon will be hard to manage.

She said: "I do not feel guilty asking my friends to drop him at the centre, but if I ask somebody to look after my kid, I feel guilty.

"I feel guilty that there is no space to play and he is sat there waiting for me.

"I work and I am good at what I do.

"Parents who work like me, some are nurses, all are thinking what are we going to do?"

Councillor Kathy Tracey, cabinet member for education and children's services said the councillors were "scaremongering" and causing needless worry.

She said: "What’s happening here is the contact with Spurgeons is coming to an end.

"From April we will be working with local schools, charities and voluntary groups with the aim of providing a wide range of child and family friendly services at the centre."