An education authority has agreed to review its "unfair" school admissions system but says no changes will be made for two years.

Hundreds of parents from east Brighton criticised Brighton and Hove City Council for changing its school admissions policy saying they could no longer exercise choice over secondary placements because they lived too far away from popular schools.

More than 700 parents signed a petition which was handed to the city council on April 28.

They were angry about the introduction of a distance-only criteria for school admissions.

Before the change, the council used priority areas but also took into consideration travel routes and how easily children could get to school.

It meant pupils on the edge of the area could still opt for the school of their choice.

Delia Forester, a ward councillor for Queen's Park, said: "Parents feel they are in an educational black hole. They apply to the nearest school and find they are excluded.

"This doesn't happen to other people in other parts of the city who are fortunate to live near schools.

"The system is therefore inequitable and unfair."

Last night, the children, families and schools sub-committee agreed to review the admissions system but said any change would take at least 18 months to implement legally and so would not come into force until September 2007.

Parents had asked for extra classes at popular schools to accommodate their children in the meantime but this was dismissed by the committee on legal grounds.

The committee agreed to establish a cross-party review group including one secondary headteacher and governor from different schools as well as an independent chairman from outside the area to review the 2005 arrangements and make any recommendations for change in 2007.

Councillor Vanessa Brown said: "The most recent change was not done on a whim but because other parents were very unhappy with the previous system.

"We wanted to make it fairer and more transparent but now it is a different area that's become disadvantaged.

"With the best will in the world, we can't please everyone and we can't keep altering the criteria year after year. We need to have a thorough review."

After the meeting Paul Grivell, who helped set up parent protest group cause4eb, said he was disappointed nothing would be done to help place children moving to senior school this year and in 2006.

He said: "I feel deeply frustrated. They were going to have the review anyway so it's as if we've been ignored. They haven't listened at all."

Sue Smith, of Norfolk Terrace, whose ten-year-old son Harry will move up to senior school next year, said: "They are trying but they are not solving the immediate problem for families like mine.

"There is no choice for us. We will still have to take what's left."