MARION Clayton, Buckinghamshire County Council's cabinet member for schools, should resign says one parent , furious over September's changes to grammar school admission arrangements.

Ingrid Gamble made the call at a meeting of the council's children's services committee on Thursday, where she spoke up for parents in Denham and Gerrards Cross whose children did not get into the grammar schools of their choice.

The children now attend Chesham High.

Denham and Gerrards Cross are in the catchment area of the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe and Dr Challoner's Grammar School in Amersham; and Mrs Gamble said the parents would never have gone along with LEA changes if they had not been assured that there would be enough places in those schools for their children.

The changes mean that if a school has more children wanting a place than places available, children who live closer get picked first rather than, as in previous years, children with higher 11-plus marks.

But more children than expected passed the 11-plus, either at the first test or on appeal; and both schools were filled by children living closer than Gerrards Cross and Denham.

An outcry followed, and Beaconsfield MP Dominic Grieve presented an 800-signature petition to the county council.

Mrs Gamble said: "Our petition has been ignored. We have been given no information and the cabinet member doesn't respond to our letters.

"We should have the immediate resignation of the cabinet member for schools."

Councillor for Bulstrode Peter Hardy criticised Cllr Clayton and schools chief Sue Imbriano for not attending the meeting, which was called to consider a report on how the changes had worked.

The meeting had been in the diary for a long time, he said.

"This is insulting to parents; I want that message to get back," he said.

Cllr Clayton said she had had another engagement which she could not miss and that in any case it was probably better for the committee to discuss the issue without her.

She would get involved when she had had the committee's recommendations, she said.