AN empty bank could be transformed into a day nursery for up to 60 children if plans submitted to the council are approved.

Stuart Hawtree, 40, wants to turn the former NatWest branch in Hamlet Court Road, Westcliff, into the second branch of Lottie and Ollie, which currently has a nursery at Cranham, near Upminster.

NatWest moved out of the unit almost 18 months ago and Mr Hawtree said, should the plans be approved, the development would improve the area, while also catering for muchneeded childcare places for an expanding population.

He said: “We’ve been looking for somewhere to move for some time now and this building came up, which seems absolutely perfect for what we want to do, despite it being probably quite a difficult property to do anything else with.

“We’ve been running about four years now, beginning as a childminding business, but we expanded outside of that to include a nursery about a year and a half ago.”

Lottie and Ollie’s latest Ofsted report, based on an inspection taken in February 2014, rated it as “good” across the board, pointing out children enjoyed learning through play, staff monitored their progress regularly, relationships with parents were good and children also learned about healthy lifestyles.

Milton councillor Julian Ware-Lane said he regretted the potentially permanent loss of a bank on Hamlet Court Road, but said he had no objections to a nursery opening in the area.

He said: “While reducing the number of banks is a cause for regret, because they are considerably outnumbered by betting shops in the area, I don’t think it’s a bad idea.

“Clearly there will be employment opportunities for local people and the parents of children in the area will doubtless welcome the increased childcare this will provide.”