Oversubscription in some Merton schools has caused Wimbledon MP Roger Casale to call for action to accommodate demand for places in individual primary schools.

Mr Casale raised the problem during a parliamentary debate about schools reform last week and cited the example of two Wimbledon primary schools Hollymount and Pelham School.

Mr Casale told school

standards minister David Miliband: "I have two young daughters, one of whom is applying for a reception place in a Merton school.

"I welcome the plans for reform but they will give little comfort this year to parents applying for Hollymount School in my constituency, where there have been 80 applications for 30 places, or Pelham School, which is also oversubscribed."

Mr Casale asked Mr Miliband to help alleviate the pressures on individual schools this year so that parents do not have to take their children up to two miles outside their local community to go to school.

The Government has given Merton £5million as part of its class size initiative, which has helped hire 105 teachers and create 21 new classrooms.

And popular schools are to be given an opportunity to expand under the proposed Education Bill, making it possible for them to offer more places.

After the debate Mr Casale told the News: "I don't think it's acceptable and it certainly doesn't chime with Government policy. Parents need to try to get the LEA to be more flexible.

"Whether or not it's the LEA to blame for the situation is not the point. They know they need to do something in the face of problems that are now there."

Josephine Mahaffey, head of the authority's schools reorganisation programme, said: "In Merton as a whole there are still more places than children.

"Some primary schools, although oversubscribed at reception, do not sustain their numbers further up the school. It would therefore be unwise for the LEA to create more places in such situations."

July 12, 2002 10:30