ROWS over pupils being refused places at the schools their parents want them to attend have become almost an annual rite in East Lancashire.

After flare-ups in previous years in Blackburn, Darwen and the Ribble Valley, now it is parents in Burnley who are angered at being refused places.

And their bitterness is made worse when the ones they chose are within walking distance of their homes.

But it is the confession today by Lancashire's head of education policy, County Coun Alan Whittaker, that the admissions system in Burnley is crazy and a lottery that will will worry parents in the town and beyond. Names are literally drawn out of a hat.

But Coun Whittaker is unable to think of a better system since, he says, a shake-up that would please the parents at present upset over being denied their choices would only dissatisfy many others.

Meantime, he has asked education officials to look for solutions that will address the difficulties in time for the next school year. The aggrieved parents, currently educating their children in a "DIY' school they have set up, can be forgiven for wanting a solution now, not least because they see the appeals system admitting other children to the 'full up' school their own cannot get into.

It ought not prove difficult to find solutions even if shifting population and new housing development have put pressure on some schools' places.

For still retaining the element of parental choice, it should, from birth rates, be easy to plan safely how many primary school places are required and in which areas.

Similarly, if the primary schools were firmly designated as the 'feeders' for the secondaries in their areas, the number of high school places could be comfortably estimated and provided for year on year.

Why cannot such plain and simple logic be drawn out of the hat?