An MP is to intervene in the case of a schoolgirl who has been told she must attend a secondary school with more than double the overcrowding rate of her chosen school.

Eastbourne Tory MP Nigel Waterson plans to speak to education ministers after the summer recess about the case of 11-year-old Claire Martin.

We reported at the weekend how she had been denied a place at Ratton School in Park Avenue, Eastbourne, after being told it could not exceed its intake of 216 pupils.

Head teacher David Linsell said he was gravely concerned about overcrowding at the school, which is 11 per cent above capacity.

But education bosses at East Sussex County Council have allocated Claire, of Priory Road, Eastbourne, a place at Eastbourne Technology College.

It is 23 per cent above capacity, the highest in East Sussex and more than double that of Ratton.

Claire's father Keith Martin is demanding to know why she is being allocated to a school with far worse overcrowding.

He said he was being stonewalled by the local education authority but now Mr Waterson has promised to intervene.

He said: "It is quite clear that many families in Eastbourne are being denied their first and even second and third, preferences for secondary schools.

"My mailbag is full with similar cases as this one, which goes back to a lack of forward planning spanning years by the LEA.

"Far from class sizes going down, there has been a steady swelling of numbers which cannot be for the good of pupils' learning."