Mothers in East Barnet are celebrating as their long-closed local baby clinic gets an official reopening date.

After East Barnet health centre shut down for refurbishment in 2014, it reopened without its mother-and-baby clinics which forced new parents to make the awkward journey to Vale Drive in High Barnet for a similar clinic.

Following a passionate campaign by local mothers, spearheaded by a petition signed over 300 times, the clinic is set to reopen on Thursday, January 19.

Charlotte Gosling, who used to take her son Jaydon to the clinic, led a group of mothers helped by local councillors and health visitors to pressure the local authorities into reinstating services.

She said: “I am very happy to have the services returning and I am looking forward to using them again with my one-year-old daughter Isabelle.

“I believe having access to this will benefit parents and carers, as well as giving them the chance to make new friends.

“Having access to a clinic and other services run by the health visiting team will enable us to get advice and support.

READ MORE: NHS Central London Community Healthcare trust announce return of mother-and-baby clinic to East Barnet Health Centre after campaign and petiton from mothers

“There are many parents whose children need extra support and parents with no support network and we need these services to make sure they get the help they need.”

As well as East Barnet Labour councillor Philip Cohen, Chipping Barnet’s Conservative MP Theresa Villiers gave her support to the campaign and lobbied for the clinic to reopen.

The former secretary for Norther Ireland said: “The East Barnet mother and baby clinic is a vital service.

“As well as monitoring children’s health, it helps parents to get the advice that they need.

“When the centre was closed, young families were left out in the cold with very little information on what was happening or when the centre would be re-opened.

“They were also having to undertake an inconvenient and time-consuming journey to the busy clinic at Vale Drive.”

The delay in reopening was due to unforeseen cost pressures in the NHS’s leasing of the building.