CLOSING Larkrise special school in Trowbridge would be a complete catastrophe, according to one of the town’s MPs who has objected to the proposal.

This week MP for South West Wiltshire Dr Andrew Murrison filed his objection to Wiltshire Council’s plans to close the school, along with special needs schools at Rowdeford near Devizes and St Nicholas in Chippenham.

It has been proposed that a new £20 million super school will be built in Rowde for current and future pupils.

Dr Murrison says he welcomes the attention being given to special needs and its willingness to invest, but that the council has come up with the wrong solution.

He says: “My experience over many years and as an ex-governor of a special school has been that the most traumatic part of the school day for students and their families is travel to and from school.

“I believe the authors of the plan have seriously misunderstood the importance of this. The proposals would make that feature of the school day so much worse.”

Speaking to the Wiltshire Times about his objections, Dr Murrison said: “I am ready to throw every tool in my tool box at the campaign to oppose the closure of Larkrise.

“I fully support Wiltshire Council’s work to improve facilities at schools for children with special needs, that is the right thing to do.

“However, it is a Good rated school and it seems to me to be a complete catastrophe to close the school.

“I have scheduled a meeting with the Secretary of State for Education to discuss this.

“I give my full backing to this campaign.”

Larkrise headteacher Paul Cook said: “We have always welcomed Dr Murrison’s support and his long term interest in the school.

“We feel he shares the concerns which we have regarding the well-being of our pupils from the Trowbridge and Warminster areas, being educated within their own community and pupils being able to use our facilities when they are adults. That is also very important.”