Parents who have protested against the cut in the primary intake at their child’s infant school are appealing against the council’s decision to send their children to other schools.

Last week the Epsom Guardian reported how Wallace Fields Infant School, in Epsom, cut its intake of pupils for this year from 90 to 60, and is turning a classroom built last year to accommodate 30 more students into a library.

Now distraught parents, whose toddlers have been been offered places at schools as far away as 3.5 miles from their homes, are lobbying Surrey County Council to bring back the 30 places and are determined to appeal to get their children a place.

Mark Hollinghurst, from Epsom, whose daughter, Lara, has been accepted into Epsom Downs School, said: “All parents who want their children to continue to go to Wallace Fields are going to appeal. We are trying to make our case to Surrey County Council in the hope they will re-open this class.”

Mr Hollinghurst said he was not prepared to leave his daughter alone at home every morning waiting for the arranged transport offered by the council and, like other parents, he wanted his daughter to stay in the same school as her friends.

A spokeswoman for the council said: “In assessing this year's demand for school places the authority has decided that pupils can be accommodated in schools in the borough without the need to increase the admission number of Wallace Fields School, although it is accepted that some of the offers made will not be in line with the preferences expressed by parents.

"Where an offer has been made to a reception applicant, who has applied to their nearest schools and been unsuccessful, and that school is over two miles from the home address by shortest walking route, the authority will provide assistance with transport.

"Countywide at reception level nearly all children (96 per cent) have been offered a place at one of their three preferred schools, with more than four out of five (83 per cent) getting their first preference."