Children aged just four will have to travel three miles each day to go to school.

Parents in Brighton today said their worst fears had been realised by their primary school allocations for September.

At least six families from the Seven Dials area have missed out on places at any of the area's primaries, which are all oversubscribed.

Their children have been sent to Fairlight Primary, off Lewes Road, Brighton, instead.

The school is a mile and a half from their homes and has been unpopular because of poor results.

The situation has been made worse this year by the Government enforced implementation of an equal preference allocation system, which replaced the old first preference first scheme.

It means that a parent who lives close to a school but only lists it as their third preference for their child will get a place ahead of someone who lives further away but made it their first choice.