An angry doorstep confrontation erupted in a Shipley cul-de-sac when nursery nurses left without jobs tracked down the owners of a closed Bradford private nursery.

Staff at Albion House Nursery in Greengates gathered to demand an explanation from Rob and Lisa Marcham for the business's sudden closure and why their pay cheques had bounced.

And police were called to calm the heated situation as the couple answered the door to six ex-staff and a relative, who demanded the pay they were owed.

Nursery assistant Caroline Tempest, who had worked at the nursery for 18 months, and 20-year-old Cheryl Hammond, a nursery nurse at Albion House for nine months, were among the group who confronted the Marchams at their rented home in Fernhill Mount.

"We are angry and upset really that they could do this to us," said a nursery nurse who did not want to be named.

But a tearful Mrs Marcham told the T&A: "We paid those cheques in good faith. We weren't aware the cheques bounced."

And her husband said the business was now in the hands of the official receiver. The business had struggled financially throughout, he said, and his teacher's salary had been used to try to keep it afloat. The staff would get their money as creditors, he said. "We have two young children. This has cost us our life. They're only young girls and they can start again."

He claimed the couple had sold the family home to try to keep the nursery running and they had been given no option but to file for bankruptcy. "We have been running up an overdraft since we opened the business. It's the bank's money, it's not our money."

Mrs Marcham said: "I've never taken a salary from the day when it opened. We put our heart and soul into it. There's £1,000 outstanding from parents. We've been badly let down by parents who haven't paid their fees. We had a good working relationship with those girls. We thought the girls would be OK. They wouldn't have had a lot of warning it was going to close but they had been paid."

After the confrontation, the nursery staff said they were pleased to have finally found their former employers - but condemned them for not offering any words of apology and for leaving long-serving staff in the dark. "They didn't even come out of the house to speak to us," said one.

Stunned parents were left with only days to find alternative childcare after receiving letters saying the nursery would not re-open after the New Year break.

Its ten nursery nurses and nursery assistants were told by post on New Year's Eve that their workplace had shut. A total of six are known to have been left with bouncing pay cheques.

Mr and Mrs Marcham, who had been staying in an annexe next to the nursery, disappeared from the area and had not been seen by their employees since Christmas Eve until yesterday.

Mr Marcham, a teacher at Rosebank Primary School in Leeds, was still off sick from work. He claimed his job was in jeopardy because of what had happened with his business.

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