Nursery nurses in Kirklees will continue their dispute over pay with a week-long walkout.

About 140 staff from 70 or so nurseries across Kirklees - including at least a dozen in the Spen Valley - will walk out from Monday to Friday, May 16.

They held four days of action last month but a settlement has yet to be reached, and the predominantly-female workforce voted to strike again. The strike will mean the closure of nurseries across the whole district including Cleckheaton, Heck-mondwike, Dewsbury, Batley and Huddersfield.

Mike Forster, of Kirklees Unison, said the nursery nurses had been "overwhelmed" by the amount of support from parents and school staff which they had received at the picket lines and in town centres around Kirklees during the first strike.

"This is the first full week in which they can take strike action after the Bank Holidays," said Mr Forster.

"The support for them has been overwhelming but the mood of the nursery nurses is angry. They feel the Council has dragged things on for a long time and they thought an improved offer would have been made by now.

"The offer of an increase of 38p per hour is unrealistic. "We've written to them explaining our claim. The response was 'This is what we're offering and nothing else'."

Sue Lord, spokesman for Kirklees education department, said: "We are waiting for official confirmation from Unison of any future strikes.

"The last strikes were at the end of term and disrupted activities. I understand that at the last meeting, the Council put forward an offer and were waiting for Unison to come back and say what it wanted."