PARENTS and supporters of St Nicholas School in Chippenham have vowed to fight on, following news this week that Wiltshire Council intends to close it and relocate pupils to a larger school in Rowde.

Parents and pupils gathered outside the school on Tuesday morning with a huge banner made by the children, while members of Wiltshire Council at County Hall in Trowbridge to discuss its future.

The school, off Malmesbury Road, teaches youngsters with a range of complex needs, including those with profound and multiple learning difficulties and autism spectrum disorders, but the council voted unanimously to close it in 2023 and send the children to a new, larger school on the site of the current Rowdeford School.

But Mel Pritchard, whose eight-year-old daughter Jessica attends the school, said: ""The local authority needs to know we are in this for the long haul.

"We will fight this to the bitter end. It doesn't matter what was decided, we will fight this all the way."

Full story: pages 2 and 3.