TWENTY buses and up to 100 miles of travel a week. That's what 13-year-old Liam Houston of St Annes faces simply to get an education, after being told he must attend a school in the middle of Preston because there is no space at his local high school.

The Houston family moved to St Annes last weekend from St Michael's on Wyre and Mr Houston told the Citizen: "We have run First Choice electrical supplies on St David's Road in St Annes for six years, and when the lease was up on the property we decided to move and buy the shop."

The only problem with the move was getting the children into new schools - more of a problem than the Houstons expected as they explained: "We had no problem getting our daughter Molly, who is six, into a primary school.

"But when it came to Liam, despite the fact that I thought ahead and applied in March for a place, the best Lancashire County Council could offer was Tulketh High in the middle of Preston because Lytham St Annes High Technology College is full.

"I refuse to let my 13-year-old son travel that distance. It is dangerous, especially in the winter when there are dark mornings and evenings, not to mention the fact that he would be getting up and getting home at ridiculous times and have no time to do his homework or have a life."

Liam, who should be going into Year Eight in September, is also dismayed about the situation. He said: "I have made a lot of friends in St Annes from being at home and around Mum and Dad's shop. My two best friends walk to the High School and it would have been so easy to go with them.

"I just wish it would get sorted out so I can go to school. I would be a bit worried about getting beaten up at a Preston school as I am a Blackpool supporter. I would feel like an outsider." Mr Houston is also disappointed in the system: "It seems to me to

be negligence and a lack of foresight," he said. "Because Blackpool is now a unitary authority, children from this area cannot be sent to schools there by Lancashire County Council.

"Education should be paramount and surely the council must have realised at the time Blackpool was applying to be a unitary authority that this would be a problem and provided more school places on the Fylde coast, either by expanding the existing school or building a new one."

As a last-ditch effort to allow Liam to go to a school where he will be among friends, the family offered to send Liam back to Garstang High which he attended when he was living in St. Michael's. But this was unacceptable to the authority who say Tulketh is the nearer school so they must supply a place there.

The standard cover for bus fares would also only pay for Liam to travel to his nearest school, meaning they would have to find more than £20 of bus fares a week if Liam went to Preston.

This seems to be a recurring problem on the Fylde coast, with an increasing number of pupils and parents making Lytham St Annes High Technology College their first choice every year.

Mr Michael Payne, headmaster of the school, empathises with Liam's situation, stating: "It is difficult to accept as reasonable that the children of Lytham St Annes should have to travel to Preston for their secondary education.

"It is the clearly held view both of the governors and myself that this school should serve the needs of the children in the township of Lytham St Annes and this has been stated on many occasions to the LEA, whose responsibility it is to place children in schools."

"However, the difficulties faced by Lancashire LEA must also be appreciated as, since Blackpool became a unitary authority, Lancashire cannot offer places in Blackpool schools although they are geographically convenient." A spokesperson from Lancashire County Council told the Citizen: "Parents are offered the chance to express a preference for a particular school, but if this cannot be met we must offer the nearest school in Lancashire.

"We have indicated to Mr Houston that he could apply to Blackpool Borough Council for a place in a school nearer to St Annes."

But to Mr Houston this is an unacceptable solution: "We have worked hard to live in Lytham St Annes and we pay our rates to Lancashire Council. Surely this should entitle us to a school place for Liam in the local area.

"Applying to Blackpool is an avenue we have explored but dismissed as the only two schools they have to offer are, in my opinion, of an unsuitable standard.

"It seems Lancashire Council want to pass the buck to other authorities and that is not acceptable. I am so frustrated by the whole situation and I have written to Michael Jack MP to appeal for the good of my son's education."

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