A frustrated mother has removed her daughters from a Melksham primary school after an arrangement to use the headteacher’s private parking area for her disabled daughter ended suddenly.

Charlotte Dobson, 37, of Lincoln Green, Melksham, took ten-year-old Tayanna out of Kings Park Primary last week after being denied use of the space following a change of heads.

Miss Dobson said events unfolded last Tuesday when she drove to the school gates with Tayanna, who is on the autistic spectrum and gets panic attacks if she is in a crowd, and expected to be able to drive through.

She said: “I have an A4 laminated pass that says I am allowed to drive through that was given to me by the former headteacher Netta Hemmins.

“She was very supportive and went out of her way to help. When I explained to her the problems I was having taking Tayanna to and from the car park used by the rest of the parents she said she didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of letting us use the private area before.

“So for the last ten months or so that has been the agreement and we have used it.”

However Miss Dobson said that last Tuesday she was shocked to find her access through the school gates had been blocked by a padlock. She confronted headteacher Michael Keeling on the matter and said he told her he didn’t feel she warranted the right to use the space.

Mr Keeling, who is in his fourth week at the school, said he would always put safety first and had acted after carrying out a risk assessment on the path running through the school, because he could not have cars driving through the school when there were children around.

He said: “We have other pupils with more severe special needs and they all use the car park, none of them get to drive through the school.

“ Some of them had noticed that Miss Dobson was being allowed to drive through the school. Everyone needs to be the same.”

The mum-of-four, who has since also taken her eight-year-old Amelie out of the school in Lowbourne, explained her actions were a matter of principle, prompted by fears for Tayanna’s safety.

She said: “Not only does she get panicky in crowds, but she has little sense of danger. I originally got the pass for the car parking space because she was nearly knocked down by a car last year.

“She is not as aware as other pupils her age and this is why the private space through the school was so important.”

Tayanna also suffers from absent fibula ulna complex, which means she was born with one leg longer than the other and underwent two operations last year with more to follow in future.

Miss Dobson, who has since enrolled Tayanna and her sister at Forest and Sandridge school, said: “I am really upset that I was just locked out without any warning.

“A principle is a principle and I need to do this because it is not right.”