A headteacher has apologised after writing to parents urging them to shun changes to school admissions criteria proposed by the education authority.

A review panel set up by Brighton and Hove City Council has proposed selecting pupils for Dorothy Stringer in Brighton based on how close they live to The Level.

Half of applications to Blatchington Mill in Hove would be based on how close they live to Sussex Country Cricket Ground.

The plan has been hatched to make up for the uneven distribution of schools around the city.

Trevor Allen, the headteacher of Dorothy Stringer in Loder Road, Brighton, wrote to parents to urge them to vote against the proposals.

He told parents the school was "strongly opposed" to the recommendations.

He said: "The proposal to establish a measuring point for Dorothy Stringer at The Level could lead to a situation where families living close to the school would not be able to gain admittance. This surely is unacceptable."

He said the city council's consultation process was flawed in part because it contained no maps for parents to easily identify the impact of the changes.

However, parents in Hanover, Queens Park and Elm Grove, who are campaigning for a change to the admissions system, were disappointed with the letter.

Mick Landmann, who has two children at Queens Park Primary School, said: "We did feel a bit let down. The impression from the letter was that there weren't any links to our area when historically children from east Brighton have always gone to Dorothy Stringer."

This week, Mr Allen wrote a new letter to parents to "apologise for an unhelpful and unacceptable error" and said he did not wish to lose links with eastern areas of the city.

Neil Hunter, the head of Blatchington Mill in Nevill Road, Hove, said he also felt it was necessary to write to parents.

He said: "We did not give a view either way on the proposals.

"All we were interested in doing was making sure people understood the changes and urged them to express an opinion whatever that was."

A city council spokesperson said: "Our view is that headteachers should remain neutral during the secondary schools admissions consultation process and we are disappointed that the head of Dorothy Stringer school has chosen to express his views in the way he has.

"We have been in touch with the head to make this point and have clarified a number of issues he raised with us."

The consultation period closed on Wednesday and the review panel will present its findings on January 23.