A decision to close or downsize 33 kindergartens and creches in Copenhagen was stopped from moving forward during a committee meeting at Copenhagen Municipality on Wednesday.

The Alternative Party, which has an elected councillor on the committee, used its right to push the decision from the closed committee meeting to the full City Council [Danish: borgerrepræsentation], where discussions between the parties on the proposed closures can be followed publicly.

“This matter screams of a lack of transparency. It’s hard to clearly see why the 33 institutions have been selected. We now think there’s a need for more openness and a better process and we are therefore taking the matter to the City Council,” Alternative’s councillor Emil Sloth Andersen said in a statement reported by the Ritzau newswire.

Sloth Andersen said over 1,000 comments had been received from parents during the proposal’s public hearing phase, expressing opposition to the plan and criticising it for failing to take into account the individual quality of the institutions slated for closure.

Although the final decision over the closures can be taken by Social Democratic lord mayor Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, Alternative’s wish is for a more “public, democratic and transparent” discussion on the cuts, according to Sloth Andersen.

As previously reported by The Local, some 33 institutions across the capital face either complete closure or a reduction in their capacity in a cost-cutting exercise in response to what the municipality says is a decline in demand for places. This is related to a drop in the number of young children who live in the city.

At risk from the cutbacks are a number of so-called udflytterinstitutioner, literally “excursion institutions” but probably better known as forest kindergartens.

These kindergartens, which revolve around a daily routine in which small children spend the majority or entirety of their time outside, including during winter, have gained the attention of international media in years past and been praised for their potential benefits to children.

Financial considerations “play a role” in determining which institutions will be closed, Copenhagen Municipality has previously said.

READ ALSO: Copenhagen’s famous forest kindergartens under threat from municipal closures

In a separate statement issued on Wednesday afternoon, the Copenhagen Municipality Children and Youth Committee [Børne- og Ungdomsudvalget] confirmed that the plan had been held up.

In the statement, the chairperson of the committee, Jakob Næsager of the Conservative Party, said he was “upset” about the outcome and accused Alternative of failing to take responsibility.

“I actually don’t understand why Alternative has chosen to put children, parents and staff in a position of uncertainty,” he said.

“We have 3,000 fewer children in the city than there were only four years ago, so of course we have to make downwards adjustments,” he said.

Elisabetta Taschini, whose eldest child attends the Jacob Holms Minde daycare in southern district Amager, said she was “among the many who have expressed their concern and sent proposals to the committee in the last weeks”.

Jacob Holms Minde is among the institutions which faces downsizing, including the closure of its forest group.

“Now, we wait and hope that the City Council will decide to keep all the forest kindergartens open, acknowledging the great pedagogical offer that they represent,” Taschini told The Local.

There is currently no firm date for discussion of the proposal in the City Council, the municipality said in the statement.