CONCERNED parents have accused education chiefs of splitting Ribble Valley communities and juggling with children's education in a heated school places row.

And Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans has called on Education Secretary David Blunkett to visit his constituency to see how children are being denied a local education.

Year Six pupils at schools in Whalley and surrounding villages have been told they have little chance of attending popular Ribblesdale High School in Clitheroe next year.

Under new rules governing the allocation of secondary school places, they are likely to be offered Moorhead High in Accrington, instead. Last year, parents in Clayton-le-Dale and Salesbury threatened to keep their children off school rather than send them to the Hyndburn school.

Most were eventually offered places at Ribblesdale High School after governors agreed to take 30 more pupils.

But the criteria for secondary school admissions was already under review and now youngsters in the Whalley area have drawn the short straw.

The new rules state that if Bowland High School in Grindleton is full and there are places at Moorhead, children in Simonstone, Read, Whalley, Barrow and Wilpshire will have "least priority" for Ribblesdale.

Mum Sue Barker, of Hayhurst Road, Whalley, said feeling among parents was running very high at a recent public meeting.

She claimed the new criteria would split communities and called on education bosses to cough up the cash for a new secondary school in Ribble Valley. She said: "About 70 parents turned up to the meeting and are to form an action group. It looks like youngsters from the outskirts of the borough will now be certain of places at Ribblesdale, but not children living much nearer Clitheroe.

"Children will face being bussed to school in another borough and many of them are already worried at the prospect. It's wrong to split communities apart like this."

Whalley is soon to have hundreds of new homes, when land at Calderstones Hospital is developed, while house-building at Barrow has nearly doubled the size of the village.

Hundreds more homes are being built at Brockhall Village.

Nigel Evans said the time had come for Lancashire County Council to "sort out its act and listen to the concerns of local families."

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "We have put in a bid to the Department for Education for 308 additional secondary school places in Ribble Valley.

"If successful, this will more than likely include a mix of provision at schools across the borough. We hope to hear whether our bid has been successful soon."

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