Parents to take legal action (From The Argus)

Parents to take legal action

9:04am Wednesday 21st February 2007 in News

Hundreds of parents gathered last night to discuss legal action against changes to secondary school catchment areas.

Protesters have secured funding for a judicial review and believe they have a watertight case to overturn Brighton and Hove City Council's plans.

More than 400 parents met at Dorothy Stringer school in Loder Road, Brighton, to consolidate their opposition to the new scheme, which the council devised in an attempt to make the admissions system fairer for the whole city.

The city council's children, families and schools committee (CFS) will meet at Brighton Town Hall on Tuesday, February 27, at 5pm, to reconsider the controversial vote taken on February 2.

Councillors' decision to push ahead with a plan to use catchment areas as a deciding factor to see which children get places at popular schools infuriated many parents and delighted others.

The proposals only went through after the Labour group sacked rebel councillor Juliet McCaffery from the committee at the last minute, swinging the vote.

The decision was called in for review by a council scrutiny committee held on Mondaywhich decided the CFS should reconsider its conclusions.

The committee will vote again on whether the plans should go ahead as they are, whether they should be changed or thrown out altogether.

Parent Mark Bannister, a member of Schools 4 Communities, which is fighting the proposal, said he would not reveal the grounds for the judicial review but said protesters had received good legal advice.

He said: "Parents are at a loss to understand how this system is going to work and cannot believe the way some politicians have acted."