PARENTS have been left bewildered after their children were given places at a school they say they know nothing about.
New Lime Tree Primary will open "temporarily" on the former Sandcross School infant site in Alexander Road, Reigate, in September. Surrey County Council says pupils will eventually be moved to a replacement school, which they hope to build in Battlebridge Lane, Merstham – but a date for this has not been set.
Unhappy parents who last week discovered they had been turned down for their three preferred choices have hit out at the way allocations have been handled.
Kati Wilson, 42, says Redhill residents who live in Park 25 and Watercolour are being discriminated against. Her son Zachary was turned down for his first three preferences, but offered a place at Lime Tree, more than four miles from home.
"I do not want to send him but I am being told I have no choice," she said. "He thinks he is going to school with his friends, he's really excited, but he is going to be pulled away from them."
"It is horrendous, it is going to cause absolute chaos."
On the proposed replacement school building – which would be much closer – she said: "I do not believe my son will ever go to that school, it will never be built in time."
Another mum, Sarah Pooley, said: "We're being told we have to take him to a school we know nothing about It's just insane.
"There's no community around that school, they're just using my son as a guinea pig. I'm lucky I've got a private school place for him, but I can't afford to keep him there."
Other prospective Lime Tree parents have complained of a lack of information and of receiving an automated council e-mail which said "no offer possible" when in fact they had secured a place.
Across Surrey, 836 parents who applied for reception or junior places failed to get any of their preferences. The figures are on a par with last year – when the school place crisis in Reigate and Banstead forced seven schools to increase their intakes.
Another mother, Kiya Abigail Rose Ottaway, who was denied places for her twins at St John's, Wray Common and Earlswood primaries, said that as she is living in temporary accommodation she will potentially have to travel miles on the school run.
She added: "They've given us places in Salfords but we're going to be back in Redhill soon. What's the point of having three preferences if you don't get any of them? A lot of people I know haven't got any of their choices, something needs to be done."
Surrey County Council spokeswoman Joy Ridley said the authority is expecting more places to be freed up as offers are accepted or refused, and that some parents may end up being offered one of their preferred places depending on where they are on each school's waiting list.
