A shake-up of Brighton and Hove's school admissions system is back on the agenda.

Councillors were last night ordered to reconsider their decision to reject proposals designed to compensate for the uneven spread of secondary schools across the city.

The current system favours pupils who live within a school's geographical catchment area, which disadvantages families in central and east Brighton because there are fewer schools than in Hove.

A working party set up by Brighton and Hove City Council to look at the situation consulted 3,500 parents about the possibility of selecting pupils for Dorothy Stringer School in Brighton and Blatchington Mill School in Hove this year based on how close they lived to The Level or Sussex County Cricket Ground. It concluded the proposals would have a "beneficial effect" in making the admissions system fairer but did not recommend the changes because 65 per cent of parents asked were against them.

Parents opposed are concerned it could result in their children being turned away by their local schools.

The council's Children, Families and Schools committee last month rejected the proposals in the light of the consultation results.

The Education Overview and Scrut-iny Panel voted last night to tell the committee to reconsider after an appeal from six east Brighton councillors. The vote was split seven against seven and only carried on the casting vote of chairman Vince Meeghan.

Hanover and Elm Grove Labour councillor Joyce Edmond Smith said the consultation process was flawed. She added: "We have a system which is unfair and discriminatory against a significant minority in the city."

Pat Hawes, Conservative, chairwoman of the Children, Families and Schools committee, vowed to resist the order to rethink the decision. She said: "We debated at length and we voted democratically and acted properly as a committee."

Gil Sweetenham, who headed the working party, said the changes were unworkable in the light of the consultation results and the working group wanted another year to come up with different recommendations.

Mick Landmann, from the campaign group CAUSE4EB, which is calling for changes to admissions criteria, welcomed last night's decision.