PARENTS whose children did not get into the school of their choice have vowed to educate them at home.

Scores of parents have lobbied Burnley MP Peter Pike over the way the system is handled and he has promised he will look into it.

The MP said the problem, which has been getting worse for the last six years, is one thing he hopes to have solved, along with Burnley's housing problems, by the time he retires as an MP.

This year Mr Pike says he has 14 or 15 cases of parents whose children have been given places at schools which they claim are unsuitable.

Parents of eight children are so upset they have refused to send them to school and are teaching them at home.

Among them is Mrs Debbie Fallows, of Howard Street, Burnley, who said her 11-year-old daughter Harley had been offered a place at Walshaw High School but wanted Ivy Bank, Gawthorpe or Habergham.

She said: "This has been going on for 20 years and has to stop. All we want is a school relatively near home and a good education, that's not asking the earth."

She said that she and other parents were planning to teach their children at home and were appealing for a voluntary teacher to teach them. They were planning to use Hargher Clough Community Centre as a schoolroom.

The problem is acute in the west of Burnley where increasing numbers of people live but where no extra places have been allocated in the three west Burnley schools -- Ivy Bank, Gawthorpe and Habergham.

This year more than 300 people applied for places at Habergham as their first choice school and 180 places were allocated, 151 applied to Gawthorpe and 172 were given places and 268 applied to Ivy Bank where 198 children were allocated a place. All three schools accepted more pupils than they originally intended.

Many of those whose children did not get in have been given places at Barden and Walshaw schools which parents say is a long way for children to travel.

Mr Pike says the whole structure of education needs looking at in Burnley and that difficult decisions need to be made with some schools possibly facing closure.

One option could be building another school in the west of the town. He said the county council was looking at proposals to help end the annual chaos.

He added: "This is an impossible position and I have 100 per cent sympathy with those parents whose children did not get a place they wanted.

"If I had a magic wand to wave I would solve the problem, but I do not. Hopefully in 2 years' time it will have been solved because this has gone on for far too long.

"There are some difficult decisions to make and some bullets to bite, but I would like to see an end to this by the time I retire."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said if schools were over-subscribed places were allocated to children who had a brother or sister at a particular school or needed special needs assistance.

Remaining places were then allocated to those living nearest the school on a walking route.

Anyone not given one of their three preferred schools is allocated to the nearest suitable school with a place.