Relieved parents of children at Malmesbury Primary School are celebrating after their Specialist Learning Centre was reprieved from closure.

As reported in last week’s Gazette, Wiltshire Council opted to keep the centre open until at least 2013. A similar centre at Longleaze Primary School in Wootton Bassett was also reprieved.

Officers had originally proposed to close both centres in a shake up of special needs provision in the county.

Instead the staff at Malmesbury Primary School will work with the council to develop a strategy for special needs provision in North Wiltshire and the SLC will be reviewed in 2012.

Parent Mary O’Brien said that, despite the campaign, many had begun to fear the worst. She said: “I knew we put up a huge fight but I honestly I didn’t think we would win.

“It would have been a grave loss to Malmesbury had it closed.

“With all the houses being built in the town there are bound to be children with special needs moving in.

“This is great for the current pupils and also those who will come in future.”

She added: “Wiltshire Council has shown it is following its slogan: where everybody matters.

“And I would like to say a big thank you to the Gazette for its support covering the campaign.”

Fellow parent Linda Tate recently moved her son to the school and enlisted the support of Happy Days actor Henry Winkler, aka the Fonz, who campaigns for special needs education.

She said: “It is amazing, we thought the writing was on the wall.

“These children aren’t going away and having experienced staff like Cathy Conway, who runs the centre, makes such a difference.

“I’m really glad we gave these children a voice.”

She added: “It made me so angry because it is so hard to get help for these children and then I found somewhere which did such a good job of it and they wanted to close it down.”

Last month Mrs Tate met actor Henry Winkler who was speaking at a conference in the UK on special needs.

She later wrote to Mr Winkler, who has written a book series about a boy with dyslexia, and he replied giving the campaign his backing. She said jokingly: “Obviously having the Fonz on board did the trick.”

Wiltshire councillor for Malmesbury Simon Killane said: “The continuing expansion of housing in Malmesbury suggests that the numbers of children using this facility will grow over the coming years.

“We have demonstrated that this type of centre is vital to our community.”