A councillor due to vote in the crucial school admissions debate this evening has been removed from the committee just hours before it met.

Coun Juliet McCaffery, the Labour representative for Preston Park, was substituted by council leader Simon Burgess because she expressed an intention to rebel against the party line and vote against the proposals.

She had agreed to second a motion tabled by independent councillor Jayne Bennett, who represents Stanford, calling for the plans to be scrapped.

Coun Burgess said: "The committee has to act on the best interests of the city as a whole."

He said Coun McCaffery had been placed in an awkward position because her ward would have been badly affected by the changes.

With council elections approaching in May Coun McCaffery had been put under pressure from constituents to support their interests.

The admissions system which has been used for the past few years allows parents to specify their first three choices of schools and, at oversubscribed schools, gives priority to families the shortest walking distance away.

But because of the geography of the city children in several areas, including East Brighton, the seafront and central Hove, live so far from their nearest schools they have no chance of being given priority at any of them.

This means many youngsters have to travel across the city to attend schools miles from their homes.

The council said it devised the new catchment areas to ensure every child would be able to get into one of its nearest schools.

But the proposed changes have angered parents in several areas who would no longer be able to get their children into their choice of schools.