My granddaughter Kelly has been refused entry to Balfour Junior School.

The appeal meeting on April 30 was very interesting and I understood the arguments made by the headmaster that class sizes were already too large and the safety aspects worrying.

However, this doesn't help my granddaughter, who is the only child in her road not to be going to the school.

My daughter lives in Larkfield Way and Kelly goes to Balfour Infant School. We naturally thought she would automatically be accepted for the junior school.

The thing that upsets us most about her refusal is she will have to be driven past Balfour Road to get to The Downs School.

There will be no more walking to school with her friends because they will all live in the other direction. Kelly was the only child north of the school who wasn't accepted.

How many children who are going to Balfour Junior live within walking distance of the school?

It was mentioned at the meeting that a lot of the children going to the school don't live in the area. We even heard of a family who put off moving so their child would be accepted at the school and then moved to Saltdean. So much for leaving the car at home.

It isn't fair the children who live locally are penalised by allowing children in from outside the area.

-Christine Bailey, andy@dowerbailey.freeserve.co.uk