With a 1.9 million euro investment, work has already begun to convert an abandoned primary school in Abrantes into a municipal nursery that can house 107 kids, the municipal council of Abrantes, in the Santarém district has disclosed. Moreover, the municipality added that "the project began with preparations for the construction site", which took a whole year to be completed.

In spite of "a lot of private supply," there is also "a lot of demand," according to Abrantes’ Mayor Manuel Jorge Valamatos (PS), which is why it is necessary to "expand the supply". He clarified that the municipality had sought community financing in order to renovate the now-disactivated Primary School No. 2 and establish a municipal nursery.

As the mayor shared “I still don’t know the management model for this infrastructure, it’s not yet completely defined, but whether directly or through concession, we will create more than 40 jobs and we will create conditions to accommodate 107 children”. Manuel Jorge Valamatos claims that the municipality launched the competition because it has "funding guaranteed" for some time and that construction will now start. As he further stated, " We hope that in the next school year, from next September to a year, we will be able to have this nursery up and running, which would be absolutely extraordinary”.

The municipal creche, which has 107 beds, will feature three separate rooms for groups of kids based on age groups: a nursery with a maximum capacity of 35 kids, four crib rooms, four park rooms and three activity rooms for kids who are just learning to walk and 24 months old, each with 36 kids, plus two more activity rooms for kids between 24 and 36 months, each with a maximum capacity of 36 kids.

However, in addition to creating three amusement and game parks and preserving the educational garden space, the project also includes a "covered space to allow activities to be carried out outdoors, even when the weather is adverse", the municipality has shared. As it also added an “intervention will also be carried out on the entire drainage system of the building and the exterior space surrounding the school to improve the safety of the supporting walls surrounding the land”.