THE row over the allocation of secondary school places in East Lancashire is to be raised in Parliament as more parents today threatened to keep their children away from school.

And Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans pledged to take the crisis to Education Secretary David Blunkett unless something is done about children being bussed miles to school.

He made the promise after a deluge of calls from angry parents like Jane Pickles, who is now considering sending her 10-year-old daughter to a Yorkshire school.

Mrs Pickles, of Main Street, Gisburn, spoke out being offered a place at Accrington Moorhead High School.

She said: "I couldn't believe it when we were told Sarah would be going to school in Accrington. There is no way she is travelling all that way. They start at 8.30am and I have no idea how she will get there on time.

"I will send her to Settle High School in Yorkshire first!" she said.

Carol Osborn, who moved to Sawley because of the quality of local schools, was similarly horrified to discover her 10-year-old Katy could not go to her first choice, Ribblesdale High.

"Katy is mildly dyslexic and not an academic high flyer so she needs a school with plenty of extra curricular activities.

"I wanted her to go to Ribblesdale High but have been allocated Bowland which is a small school which doesn't even have a gym. After that they have offered Accrington Moorhead but that is 11 miles away and there is no bus.

"Hell will freeze over before Katy goes there."

Mrs Osborn is to appeal against the allocation but if unsuccessful plans to keep Katy away from school for a year and reapply for Ribblesdale next year. David Holt, from Bolton-by-Bowland, said he was stunned when his daughter Sarah was allocated Accrington Moorhead.

"We have lived here for 30 years and expected Katy to be given a place at a local school. We don't know Moorhead at all and have no idea what we will do if we don't win an appeal."

Parents living in Lammack, Blackburn, have already complained to Blackburn with Darwen Council and written to local MP and Home Secretary Jack Straw after their children failed to win a place at popular Pleckgate High.

Parents in Wilpshire and Mellor packed a public meeting over the allocation of places in Clitheroe after they were offered places in Hyndburn.

Parents in Clayton-le-Dale and Salesbury are also angry that their children will have to walk two-and-a-half miles and catch three buses to get to Moorhead.

They fear the tradition of sending children living on the borders with Blackburn to Blackburn schools has changed since the area became a unitary authority.

But a spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen Council said: "Our schools are being run as they were in previous years under county council control."

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