A schoolboy is at the centre of a row over a lack of places at a Brightlingsea school.

The 12-year-old moved to Brightlingsea this year during the summer holidays, but Colne Community College, his nearest school, turned down a request for him to start in year eight in September.

Since then he has been taught at home by tutors provided by Essex County Council because the school says it does not have room for him.

Headteacher Terry Creissen said the decision was made because the year is already oversubsribed by 31 pupils and there is just not room for any more.

It was made despite repeated appeals by the boy's parents to an independent panel which agreed unanimously to back the college.

Essex County Council has directed the school to take the pupil because the next nearest school, Sir Charles Lucas, is too far away.

Now Mr Creissen has written to Education Secretary David Blunkett, appealing against the authority's decision.

Mike Barnett, Essex County Council's education spokesman, said the reason the year was full was that the school had been taking pupils from across the area and not just from Brightlingsea.

"We have the power to direct them to take the boy but the school still won't take him," he said.

But Mr Creissen said their admissions policy said they are not allowed to hold back places for Brightlingsea students if someone from out of the area applied first.

"We have spoken to the DofEE about this and they have said if we did that they would have to come down on us hard. Of course, we have a responsiblity to our feeder schools but after that we cannot reserve places.

"We feel that we are in the right here and I am willing to fight this and go to a judicial hearing on the subject.

"If I keep taking just one more and then another I will have huge classes on my hands which no-one wants," he added.

Mr Barnett said the ideal of local schools was that you kept them local and it was unreasonable to expect the pupil in question to travel past his nearest school to get to another.

He said the boy will stay at home until the Education Secretary David Blunkett made a decision on the matter.

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