Can Conservative councillor Ted Kemble please be the last local politician lamely to trot out the cliche that "the catchment areas have caught" (The Argus, March 12). As if that were something to be proud of.

To the majority of families in single-school catchment areas, such areas can appear more like "entrapment" areas that hinder parental choice.

To the minority of us living in one or other of the two-school catchment areas, they more closely resemble "exclusion" areas that prevent the less fortunate from getting tickets in "our" lottery.

It is not the responsibility of politicians such as Coun Kemble to "catch" children. It is their duty to liberate parents to choose, as much as possible, which school is best for their daughters and sons.

Catchment areas - particularly single-school catchment areas - are anathema and a throwback to the last century.

In contrast, the random allocation of places in instances of oversubscription - which Coun Kemble's Tory Party threatens to outlaw - is a bold and innovative attempt to rid the city of "selection by mortgage".

The sooner it can benefit all parents, regardless of where they live, the better.

  • Greg Hadfield, Surrenden Road, Brighton

    We are told that private schools in the area have had a pronounced increase in this year's inquiries from parents and that this could be due to the new system of secondary school allocation.

I now read that following a poll of 2,000 parents only two per cent chose schools on league tables while 87 per cent believed that schools should be judged against a range of factors and not primarily on exam results.

Could it be that the volume of local protest against the new system has come from only a small number of parents and should be treated accordingly?

  • RG Jenkins, Welbeck Avenue, Hove