Controversial plans to end children’s services and drastically reduce opening hours have been criticised by the council.

On Tuesday Epping Forest District Council expressed “extreme concern” in a statement to Essex County Council, following a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The committee also stated that it is “disappointment” in the consultation currently being held.

Steven Neville from Buckhurst Hill spoke out about the closures at the meeting, saying that “greater levels of local social deprivation existed, than the county council will acknowledge” in Epping Forest.

Essex County Council is aiming to make a saving of £215 million by 2016/2017 on top of £365 million already saved over the previous 3 years by closing 11 centres across the county.

Little Buddies in Buckhurst Hill is one of these marked out to be shut.

It is estimated that the closures move will save £2.5 million.

While Little Buddies would close and its services merged with the Sunrise Centre in Loughton, further planned changes to district wide services include the establishment of outreach services.

Overview and Scrutiny Councillor Leon Girling said that schools and parents of slightly older children had been “excluded”.

Councillor Stephen Murray contested that previous assurances over the protection of funding for children’s services had not been fulfilled.

He argued that the decision to close Little Buddies was a “done deal”.

Stav Yiannou of Essex County Council and Stacy Randall of contract provider Spurgeons attempted to explain the reasons for the consultation and proposed the closure.

The consultation, Shaping Future Services from April 2014, on the closure of Little Buddies and other centres ends on December 5.