Moves towards a lottery for city primary school places could follow after parents called for change.

Councillors have asked Brighton and Hove City Council to look at the way allocations are handled in East Brighton after it emerged families with young children were struggling to get them into any of their nearest schools because they were all oversubscribed.

Similar complaints from the area in 2005 eventually led to the creation of the controversial catchment area and lottery scheme now used to decide the city's secondary school places.

Labour councillors Gill Mitchell, Warren Morgan and Craig Turton, who represent the East Brighton ward, have written to councillor Vanessa Brown, cabinet member for children and young people, to ask for a long-term solution.

Coun Mitchell said: "We met with around 40 families from Kemp Town who have very few options for school choices. In their area there are two private schools and two faith schools, which are not possible options for most of them.

"Their nearest community school is in Whitehawk, some distance away and not on a direct bus route."

The area is the latest of several to complain of difficulties with primary school places.

Parents in central Brighton and Seven Dials have previously spoken out at the paucity of options for them, unless they are eligible for church school places.

Several have found their children allocated slots at primaries miles from their home as a result.

The city is currently experiencing a boom in the number of children at primary school age.

Coun Mitchell said her group was not calling for a complete overhaul of the admissions system yet.

She said: "I don't think we need a lottery for the primary schools at the moment but they need to do something in this area.

"The council has been adding extra capacity to schools in Hove using Government funding and is talking about building a new primary there as well.

"We're asking for them to consider using some of the funding to make more places available in Kemp Town."

Green councillor Ben Duncan, whose Queen's Park ward contains part of Kemp Town, has previously spoken of the need to review primary school allocations.

He said: "Something needs to be done, too many parents are having difficulty getting the right places for their children."

Coun Brown will respond to the letter at a cabinet member meeting at Hove Town Hall, in Norton Road, today at 4pm.