St. John’s city council has approved a new daycare centre for the west end of St. John’s.

It will house up to 58 kids and a dozen staff in an existing building at 603 Topsail Road, just west of Brookfield Road.

The city required seven parking spaces for the operation but it was approved with just six due to limited space.

That issue, along with four-lane traffic and high speeds in that area was enough for Councillor Tom Davis to question the idea.

“Although I know we need daycare spots, and I don’t want to be anti-daycare, I am really concerned with the safety factor,” said Davis, who grew up in the neighbourhood. “People won’t be able to back in there, so they’ll be going in head-on and backing out into traffic, so I’m not sure we’ve really had a good look at it.”

Chief city planner Ken O’Brien assured council that staff have looked at it “in depth.”

“We don’t anticipate problems on the lot with it being jammed up and people waiting on Topsail Road,” he said. “Of course it remains to be seen if it’s approved and in operation but our engineers are OK with the setup.”