EDUCATION bosses yesterday agreed to investigate a “lottery” system for allocating places at over-subscribed grammar schools.

Buckinghamshire County Council schools boss Marion Clayton insisted there was “no commitment” to using it but the system has to be “fairer”.

Children currently get places based on how close they live to a school – but a report commissioned by the council said this pushed up house prices, benefiting the well off.

Instead, education consultation Alan Parker last week said allocating places through “random allocation” lottery would be fairer (see link, bottom of story).

This would see catchments redrawn in the south of the county so every parent had a choice of a single or mixed sex grammar. All or some places could go to a ballot.

Ruling council cabinet members yesterday agreed to investigate the call – but keep current catchments until then. The review looked at all admissions arrangements.

Cllr Clayton said: “We already operate an extremely successful admissions process and service.

“Clearly, there have been some concerns by some parents in certain areas of the county.”

Parents in the Gerrards Cross and Chalftonts area who cannot get children into the prestigious Dr Challoner’s schools in Amersham are a particular concern, the report noted.

She said: “It is only an agreement at this stage that we investigate.”

The lottery system would be a modelled and tested, she said, and it would need to show “improvements for a significant number of parents”.

Yet she said “we will never please 100 per cent of parents” and their first place preference could never be met all times.

Fellow Conservative cabinet member Councillor Mike Colson backed the move.

He said: “If you would put our schools on rollers and move them about, life would be a good deal easier.”

The distance rule did not ensure equality, he said.

Councillor Martin Tett said there were enough grammar places but some schools were more popular than others.

He said: “Whichever system you have, there will never be enough places at those schools to meet demand.”

Cllr Clayton, cabinet member for achievement and learning, concluded: “It isn’t a matter of putting names into a hat.

“It is a matter of taking this very seriously and seeing what we can do to improve the service for our parents.”