North Yorkshire Council’s executive will on Tuesday hear a consultation has concluded there is significant support for a plan to spend £3.5m transforming and extending the former Woodfield Primary School in Harrogate to expand provision for pupils with special needs.

Leading members of the new unitary authority are set to convene for the first time at Harrogate Civic Centre to consider whether to establish a new special school on the Woodfield Road site for autistic children aged 11 to 19, with a target opening date next September.

The meeting comes just months after the primary school closed with the council claiming it had “exhausted all options” after years of falling pupil numbers and an inadequate Ofsted rating, alongside complaints that pupils and parents have been “badly let down” by education bosses.

Executive members will be told some 86 per cent of 105 consultation respondents supported the proposal.

Numerous respondents said the specialist school was “desperately” needed in the area, with one parent highlighting how their child had to travel to Darlington for autism provision.

Respondents said many children with autism failed to do as well as they could because they were not in the correct setting to flourish.

A headteacher of a local primary school told the consultation: “This is very good news indeed, especially when we consider the number of pupils attending private placements alongside the skyrocketing levels of need. It is very good to feel heard by the local authority.”

Since 2016, the number of children in North Yorkshire with identified special educational needs and disability and a legally-binding education, health and care plan has increased by more than 110 per cent, leading to a shortage of special school places and numerous children being taught by independent providers.

As independent day sector placements typically cost the public purse up to £70,000 annually and the average cost of a special school placement is about £23,000, the authority is forecasting savings of up to £4m over the first five years of operation.

However, some respondents have questioned the proposal, whether the funding should have been focused on improving or extending other specialist schools, with one claiming it was “too little too late for the academic autistic community”.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Bilton and Nidd Gorge division councillor Paul Haslam said the proposal was a good outcome for the community and the children who will attend the new specialist school after attempts to secure the future of Woodfield school were unsuccessful.

He said: “The community was severely disappointed when the primary school closed, however we are delighted a new school will be here to provide provision for children with special educational needs.

“It’s a great green location with good air quality and facilities and as the primary school had 50 per cent special needs pupils, the area is used to providing that type of care.”

Yorkshire primary which closed down could be reopened as specialist autism school