"Extraordinary" demand at a Marlow school has led to the creation of new places in September - but parents critical of the council say it is too little too late.

Parents are outraged after some year six pupils in Great Marlow School’s catchment area were allocated to Burnham Grammar School over an hour’s bus ride away.

Great Marlow has now found space for an additional 25 pupils in year 7 from this September to cope with what head Geralyn Wilson called "overwhelming popularity".

It came after a flurry of appeals were lodged by parents whose children did not get their chosen school place.

Mrs Wilson said: "I am very pleased to have been able to increase our Year seven intake for September.

"This is in response to the pressure of an extraordinary number of applications from parents for the 2015-2016 academic year. "The current Year 6 in the Marlow area contains a greater number of pupils than previous years or subsequent years.

"We have worked very proactively with Buckinghamshire County Council to respond to parental wishes. "It is most encouraging that we have secured the best possible solution through our collaboration and cooperation."

A second round of allocations takes place on April 24 and though numbers fluctuate, Mrs Wilson said she is hopeful that the extra places will satisfy the full demand.

Sharon Stone from Bolter End, whose son missed was allocated to Burnham in the first round, says education authority Buckighamshire County Council has a responsibility to find him a place at Great Marlow.

The mother of four has sent two of her other children to the school, which is within catchment for Bolter End.

The frustrated parent said she knows of at least 20 other families in the HP postcode who originally missed out, and is calling on BCC to fix the problem quickly.

She said: "I choose to live where I live, we’ve been here 12 years and we pay our council tax for our children to go to a local school, and they want to send out kids to a school in SL1. No way, that is not happening.

"It is their duty, they have a duty of care to children in the catchments to make sure they have got a place so parents do not have to completely change their lives just to get their kids to school.

"These children deserve to go their local school. They should not be putting parents and children through this.

"It’s not acceptable for an 11-year-old to have a two and a half hour round trip to get to school. One of us would have to give up work and that’s ridiculous."

The county council says it is working hard to accommodate the pressure on school places for September.

Spokesman Richard Well said: "It's our responsibility to ensure there are sufficient school places in the county.

"we were very pleased to work with the Great Marlow School academy to ensure there were enough places in the Marlow area to meet the increase in demand this year."