Parents battling new admissions rules at Eldwick Primary School have complained to the Local Government Ombudsman after having fresh hopes of a rule change dashed.

Bradford Council's powerful executive committee is set to reject pleas that it stick to the sibling ruling where, if a child is already at the school, brothers and sisters also get places.

That policy had been threatened by priority places for families on a new housing development and so some parents feared their children could end up at different schools.

Earlier this month the schools' admissions forum and the improvement committee bowed to parent power and asked the executive to keep the sibling ruling for Eldwick. But, after taking legal advice, it now says too many consultations would be needed to make the change in time for 2006. Instead it will ask the admissions forum to look at the issue again in time for 2007.

Roy Housley, a parent whose three children could be split up, complained: "The executive are ignoring the admissions forum, they are ignoring the improvement committee and they are ignoring more than 250 parents in Eldwick.

"They are sending this back to the admissions forum with exactly the same arguments they did before - they have no intention of doing this even for 2007."

He has now referred the case to the ombudsman, and added: "We were given false hope. What is the point of a consultation if, when somebody objects, you cannot do anything about it because there is not enough time for another consultation?"

The Council's executive member for education, Councillor Dale Smith, said the change was impossible at the moment: "We are told we cannot do it for one school alone so we cannot change it on this occasion.

"For a very small number of parents, it is a very real issue. I am afraid the improvement committee's recommendation did give them false hope. The admissions forum was less certain on this and that is why it took legal advice."

But Councillor Phil Thornton, chairman of the improvement committee, said the executive was making its decisions from an 'ivory tower' and added: "What is the use in setting up organisations to take a look and give advice, and then to ignore that advice? We got a compromise situation which was acceptable to all concerned and to dump it seems odd."

A spokesman for the ombudsman's office confirmed: "We do have a complaint about the admissions arrangements for the school and we are currently considering it."

A ruling can take several weeks and can result in recommended changes to Council policy.

Bradford Council's executive meets at City Hall on Tuesday at 2pm. The meeting is open to the public.