A SPECIAL school is to be relocated in a former secondary school that was closed four years ago.

Somerset County Council wants to buy back the St Augustine of Canterbury School campus off Priorswood Road, in Taunton, which would also offer early years places.

It needs more space for children and young people attending Selworthy School, which currently operates at four separate sites.

And a rise in the birth rate and massive house building nearby means it also requires places for pre-school children.

St Augustine’s, which is currently jointly owned by the Church of England’s Bath and Wells diocese and the Catholic Clifton diocese, closed in 2010, along with the former Ladymead School, on Cheddon Road.

Students from the two schools were then given the chance to attend Taunton Academy, which opened the same year on the former Ladymead site.

There had been speculation that the St Augustine’s site, at one time owned by the county, would be sold to a developer for housing, but the County Gazette recently reported that a decision had been made to keep it as an education facility.

Talks have been held with the head teacher and governors at Selworthy, as well as Taunton Pupil Referral Unit and Sky College, which has premises beside St Augustine’s.

Somerset County Council cabinet members will discuss the proposals, which would involve more than £350,000 of county funding, at their meeting on Monday.