Angry parents marched through the streets of York today in protest at secondary school places allocated to their children.

The kids are united: Pupils and parents march to the education department offices in York today. Picture: Frank Dwyer

About 100 parents and youngsters converged on the City of York council's education headquarters, where they were invited in to discuss their grievances with department director Mike Peters.

The protesters were demanding places for their 11-year-old children at secondary schools near to their homes. Most of the demonstrators have children at Fishergate and St George's Primary School, but parent Trina Warriner said other protesters just wanted to support their case.

The parents' protest under the banner "local schools for local children" started when children were allocated places at secondary school two miles from their homes.

Mike Peters said: "We genuinely regret not being able to allocate everyone their first preference but no system would be able to do this."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.