COVERAGE by this paper of a fight by parents to get their children into a catchment area school has been praised in the House of Commons.

Yesterday afternoon in a schools debate, Conservative MP for Lewes Maria Caulfield said: “Brighton and Hove council has had issues taking in more children.

“But when the Brighton Argus investigated this, and reporter Joel Adams did an expose, they were telling parents they had no money and couldn’t accommodate these children and it was all down to Government cuts.

“When the Argus investigated they found the Government had given the council £15 million to deal with the problem to build new classrooms and the Labour council had refused to spend it.”

After The Argus revealed the £15 million was available for city schools, parents asked for some to be spent on temporary classrooms at Dorothy Stringer and Varndean for children who had missed out on places. The council said that would not be possible.

But after The Argus contacted opposition councillors an emergency amendment was moved at a committee meeting and ultimately a cross-party agreement was reached to provide spaces from this September.