The local school is a few streets away and all your child's friends are going there from nursery school.

Yet your son and daughter have been refused a place because of rigid local education geographical rules.

Despite putting reasoned arguments for their child to go to the school of their choice, hundreds of parents in Sussex find they must apply to review panels in a bid to get a disappointing decision overturned.

Last week, the decisions of the panels, comprising educational experts, councillors and lay members, were announced for several schools in Brighton and Hove and East Sussex. Many remain unsatisfied.

Parents in Peacehaven and Brighton and Hove feel their arguments have fallen on deaf ears and the panels have not fully considered their cases.

Some are even thinking of taking their children out of the school system altogether and educating them at home, rather than send their children to local schools which they feel are unsuitable.

They are planning to take their appeals to the next level, which involves a hearing by an independent panel. But there are few records of the independent panels overturning decisions already made.

The anger in Peacehaven is over Peacehaven Infants School in Edith Avenue, which will open in September after being rebuilt.

Despite thousands of pounds being spent, it is still not big enough to cater for demand. There were 66 applications for 60 places from children in the catchment area.

Fifty seven places were allocated and three appeals were successful: two were given to children whose brothers and sisters were already at the school and a third to a special needs child who lives in Peacehaven.

Some parents are being told to send their children to Meridian Primary School, which is more than a mile away to the north.

Their plight is mirrored in Brighton, where Helen Barnett is angry her four-year-old son, John, has been refused a place at Middle Street School, despite living nearby in Kemp Street, North Laine, and attending the Middle Street nursery school.

She has been told she should send her son to St Bartholomew's Church of England School, even though her and her husband's faith is Baptist. It is slightly further away in Ann Street.

She said: "I was told places at Middle Street School are reserved for children in the Montpelier area of Brighton, which is on the border with Hove. I know St Bartholomew's is probably just one street further away than Middle Street but that is not the point.

My son has a slight stutter and is used to going to Middle Street nursery school. He has made friends with the children in nursery school and wants to continue his schooling with them.

"I went through the appeal procedure and made my case but there were a couple of rather haughty women on the review panel who did not take much notice of my argument and I feel they had already made up their mind."

Parents in Peacehaven thought attending the nursery class at Peacehaven Infants School would be in their favour when the time came for children to move into the infants section.

Parents are anxious to get their children into Peacehaven Infant School, not only because of its central position, but because it has a good Ofsted report.

Shaun Doyle, 32, is angry his pleas and those of his wife for their four-year-old daughter, Georgia-Mae, to attend Peacehaven Infants School have also been unsuccessful.

He said "It is ridiculous to take her to Meridian County Primary School, which will mean me having to take her past Peacehaven Infants School for a further mile to get to that school.

"She is the only child from the morning session of the nursery school who has been rejected. When I put forward my case to the appeal board they failed to listen and said it was because I lived on the eastern edge of Peacehaven.

"We have not been listened to. The whole system of allocating children to schools and the appeals procedure needs to overhauled. It is very stressful."

A spokesperson for East Sussex County Council said: "We do our level best for pupils, parents and schools but given that class size legislation restricts infant classes to 30, it is inevitable not all children will get places at their preferred schools."