MANY parents who lodge appeals against their child's allocated school place "do not bother" to turn up to the hearing, Conservative councillors have said.

Bradford Council's opposition Conservative group say this is not only "very poor manners", but also wastes taxpayers' money when interpreters have been hired in for the appeals because the parents don't speak English.

They are now lobbying the Government to change the rules so parents can be sent the bill if an interpreter's time is wasted.

Parents can lodge an appeal if their child is not given a place at their preferred school. The appeal is heard in front of an independent panel of volunteers, and can go ahead without them if they fail to turn up.

Councillor Simon Cooke, leader of the Conservative group, said: "My main concern is that a significant proportion of the parents who do not turn up without notice require, and are provided with, interpreters for the meeting.

"We hire in specialist interpreters to attend to help these people and when the parents do not arrive, the council must still pay the interpreter at £50 a time.

"One turned up the other day to interpret for two separate families who had consecutive appointments, but neither turned up and the council had to pay £100 for interpreting services which it transpired were not required.

"This is not an unusual occurrence."

It is a legal requirement for councils to provide interpreters for school appeals, where needed.

Cllr Cooke said his group would now be lobbying the Department for Education "to highlight the drain on taxpayers’ money" and to call for a change in the rules so parents could be sent the bill for any wasted translation costs.

Bradford Council does not keep a record of how many parents fail to turn up to the hearings.

But Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, the executive member in charge of schools, said most parents did attend and interpreters were required in only a tiny percentage of cases.

She said: "Since May last year the council only paid for 53 interpreters. In addition, schools themselves have paid for 28.

"Usually the local authority hears about 1,500 appeals every year so it's a really small percentage who ask for a council interpreter."

She said when they were talking about such small numbers, it "probably doesn't justify" chasing people down to recover any wasted costs.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said the matter would be one for local authorities to look at, rather than themselves.