A charity hopes its plans to transform a former library building into a school would be a “happy ending” for the site.

The We Care Foundation, established by a group of parents in Brent, has submitted a proposal to Brent Borough Council to turn the Barham Park Library building into a school.

The group wants to lease the building for use as a special secondary school for pupils with autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia.

The school would be called Eden Manor and would open in September 2013 with the capacity for 40 students.

It would eventually employ 30 full-time staff members.

The parents who set up the We Care Foundation believe that the school is necessary as they argue that Brent currently struggles to provide for all of its pupils with special educational needs.

Toby Chambers, whose son is autistic, said: “While there is no guarantee we will secure the building we hope that this could be a happy ending for at least one of Brent’s libraries.

“This school is needed as currently a number of pupils have to be transferred from Woodfield School to Alperton Community School after Year 9, as there are simply not enough places at Woodfield for all pupils currently admitted to year 7.

“For any child, transferring to another school midway through secondary education is a challenge and can be detrimental to their learning.

“But for a child with autism, the disruption to learning and the inability to easily develop social friendships in moving schools can have a profound negative impact on their future academic achievements.”

The social entrepreneur added: “The community desperately needs more schools and our proposal for Eden Manor at Barham Park does not even require the high cost of building a new school.

“Furthermore, Brent Council spent £300,000 in 2010 refurbishing part of Barham Park prior to the library being closed.

“Surely in these times of austerity, we all need to be thinking about how best to use a local community resource, particularly when at least part of the building at Barham Park has had substantial money spent by Brent Council and that money ultimately comes from Brent council tax payers.”

This is the We Care Foundation’s second attempt to secure the building.

In 2011 it applied to the Department for Education for permission to set up Eden Manor as a free school.

However, this bid failed as the council would not support it.

They are particularly keen to establish the school on this site as it has good transport links and they think the parkland setting would be a peaceful learning environment for the students.

The We Care Foundation hopes to hear whether their bid has been successful within the next few weeks.

The building in question was run as Barham Park Library until it was closed by the council last October.

The Friends of Barham Park Library are also keen to get their hands on the building as they want to reopen it as a community library.