AMID the row over allocating high school places to pupils who live miles away and refusing them to ones living close by, education chiefs at Blackburn with Darwen deny they are engaged in social engineering and say such things as "feeder" primary schools shaping the intake areas of secondary schools do not exist.

This newspaper has showered scepticism on the claims, but acknowledges one certainty brought into the debate by the parent-teacher association of Pleckgate High, the school at the centre of this controversy.

As we report today the PTA says that, as applied, this admissions policy, claimed as being fair by the education authority, wrecks the sense of community within the schools.

If they consider this is beneficial or defensible, it is they who need educating.

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