Parents are bitterly divided over a controversial secondary school catchment area revamp.

The plans were approved by councillors in Brighton and Hove after a knife-edge vote on Friday.

Protesters at a meeting of the children, families and schools committee accused councillors of destroying parental choice.

But others have phoned and emailed The Argus over the weekend to support the changes.

Emma Larkin, 37, of Hartington Road in Brighton has two children at Elm Grove School and two other youngsters waiting to begin secondary school.

She said: "It's absolutely brilliant.

I've seen how spiteful and embittered the other side got in this debate - the people who wanted to maintain the status quo.

"Not everyone's got the money or the will to move to an area to get their kids near a good school."

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

Under the present system parents specify three schools and, at oversubscribed ones, priority is given to families living the shortest distance away.

But 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.

The new scheme will instead use a lottery system to decide who gets in if too many children are applying for too few places.

Campaigners against the changes labelled the vote - decided by the casting vote of Labour committee chairwoman Pat Hawkes - a "stitch-up" and a "whitewash".

The decision went through only after the council's Labour group sacked rebel councillor Juliet McCaffery from the committee after she refused to give in to orders to vote for the scheme.

Her vote would have tipped the balance of the ten-strong committee, resulting in the proposals being thrown out. She was replaced by Councillor Gill Mitchell who voted in favour. Mrs Larkin said: "Part of Juliet McCaffery's remit was to look at how things were going to affect the city as a whole, not just her ward. She wasn't able to fulfil her duty so she had to be removed."

Jill Harbord, of Elm Grove, has two children at Elm Grove school.

She hopes they will now be able to go on to Varndean.

She said: "Dorothy Stringer and Varndean are our nearest schools but under the previous system, based on distance, there was a strong chance they wouldn't have got in."

Michael Grassis, of Cobden Road, Hanover, said: "I fully support what the council has done. I went to the demonstration and the vast majority of people were there in support of the changes."

However, some parents told The Argus the Labour party had been arrogant and undemocratic in removing Coun McCaffery.

One wrote: "This was not democracy.

It is outrageous that Labour can remove a member of the committee because it knew it would lose the vote."

The new admissions scheme will replace the existing system from September 2008. Coun Hawkes said: "Those that live around schools can't assume they own them. They are there for the whole city."