Claire McBride, 34, currently co-runs the Play and Stay for pre-school children at Seven Hills Primary School on a voluntary basis with her friend, Michelle Watson.

But having listened to so many people bemoaning the closure of their local mums and tots groups, she had an idea to help them out with somewhere they could drop off their children for just a few hours.

She is now setting up a playgroup in the Eary Years Centre, Queen Street, which will be opening from 9.15am-11am Monday to Friday.

"This will allow children to experience time away from their parents or carers and gain social experience with other children," Claire said.

"It also allows parents to have a few hours to themselves, perhaps to join a gym or do a training course or just have a break.

"At the same time a lot of childminders are struggling to fill full-time places and so try to manage on part-time places and a lot of childminders leave because they cannot manage on the money.

"If the group gains enough interest I hope to help by staffing the group with childminders that have a few hours spare in a morning and could do with a wage top-up and so help them out at the same time."

Claire hopes to work closely with the Children's Centre to combine the playgroup with other services in the community, for example providing a creche to allow parents to do a short computer, maths or English course.

"Whilst there are excellent childminders and nurseries in Morley, some people just want to use a service once or twice a week without paying for a full time place," she said.

"I am over the moon that this can be run from Queen Street Early Years for the moment and hope that the group will become a valuable resource for the community."

Anyone interested can get an application form from Claire by popping into one of the sessions and sign up to just one session or all four.

The playgroup will be £8 per session or £30 for all four sessions and will involve free play where children can select their own toys to play with, craft activities, painting, glueing and drawing with a mid-morning snack followed by story time and songtime .