PIGS have returned to the walled garden of a New Forest school just weeks after a heated campaign against the programme saw them leave.

Priestlands School in Lymington was put under the microscope after vegan parent Vincent Cook called for the four pigs to be taken away from the site.

Following this the school gave the animals back to their original owner, however staff set about asking parents for their views.

The subsequent results showed an overwhelming majority - 97 per cent - of the 1,000 parents who responded were in favour of the pig rearing, which has taken place at the school for 10 years.

A letter sent out by headteacher Peter Main said: "I would like to thank all of you who participated in our survey. We had almost 1000 replies with 97% of parents responding yes to the question, ‘should Priestlands School continue to raise pigs for meat’.

"We hope we can now move forward in a way that will ensure all parties are fairly represented and satisfied."