LITTLE more than two months since Westgate Nursery was gutted by an arson attack running into £150,000 of damage, the doors have reopened after an heroic effort from the community.

The staff of the nursery spent the last few weeks operating out of a room in the nearby Highworth Community Centre as they get back on their feet.

Amazingly, despite the problems, all the children have stayed on the books and more applications have been received.

Sandria Mirkin, owner of the Westgate Nursery, was full of praise for the builders from New Space Construction who worked tirelessly to get the house, on Cricklade Road, back to its former state.

“It feels fantastic to have moved back into the nursery now,” she said.

“It has been very hectic this week but the nursery looks fabulous and the builders have been absolutely tremendous in the time scales we had.

“Amazingly we haven’t lost any children, and we have had a massive amount of support from the parents. We even had new applications in while we were in temporary accommodation.

“We only just moved back last week but almost everything is now in place. The problems we have had is ordering all the equipment we need to get set back up.

“The staff have been amazing and worked their socks off over the last weekend to get everything ready.”

The nursery, which has been run for the last 25 years by Sandria and her family, including her daughter and current manager, Shelley, has benefited from the goodwill of the community, even through a new visit from OFSTED at their temporary home.

“One of the people in the building team is a father at the nursery, and another is related to a member of staff, so they all had a vested interest as it was,” said Sandria.

“We are extremely grateful to the community centre because to accommodate us was a huge upheaval for them.

“As soon as we were in, we had a fresh OFSTED inspection and had to be totally re-registered in view of all the circumstances.

“That was awful because it was a great deal of stress and created a problem with insurance, which meant we had to close for another day while the question mark was there.

“From the community point of view, local residents and the community centre have been wonderful.

“I believe police are still pursuing a line of enquiry relating to the arson.”

A spokesman for Wiltshire Police said: “Police were called by the fire service at 2.32pm on April 6, 2015, to a fire at a nursery school in Cricklade Road, Highworth.

“There were initial concerns that there may be people inside but this turned out not to be the case.

“It is believed the fire was started deliberately as a window had been forced open in the conservatory. Crime scene investigators attended the scene and enquiries are continuing.”

Anyone with information should call police on 101.

Alternatively, information can be given anonymously to the Crimestoppers charity by calling 0800 555 111.