Bradford Council's only workplace nursery dedicated to caring for staff's young children is set to close down next year.

Cavell House in Manningham caters for up to 78 children under five and has been running for 17 years.

Until March it attracted a £200,000-a-year subsidy from the Council, although staff who use the service pay fees as well.

After this was halted in March, however, the service is no longer "financially viable".

The nursery, which is in two combined Victorian houses, will close its doors in August and the 13 full-time and nine part-time staff will be re-deployed.

Parents of the 65 part-time children and 12 full-timers have started a petition campaigning to keep the nursery open.

The Council has said it will help these parents in finding places for their children elsewhere.

Robin Naylor, head of the Council's Early Years and Childcare Service, said: "It is with regret we are having to relocate the childcare provision provided by Cavell House to alternative locations. Cavell House has offered 17 years of extremely high quality childcare.

"However, after a wide range of measures to improve the financial standing of the centre, including increasing the number of children and broadening the eligibility of places to a wider group of parents, the point has been reached where unfortunately we have had to decide it is no longer financially viable.

"We are hoping to relocate our dedicated staff to other locations which will offer high-quality childcare and learning, primarily children's centres, and we will do all we can to help and support parents to find alternative places for their children.

"We appreciate that parents and staff are concerned but we are doing all we can to minimise disruption and we'll answer any questions people have between now and closure in August 2008."

The last Ofsted report for the nursery, published in 2004, said it was "extremely well organised" and that "teaching is very good".

"Staff are highly enthusiastic, motivated and confident in their roles. Teamwork is strong, staff are very organised and make good use of their time. This enables them to provide a stimulating and interesting environment for the children to learn."