Five-year-old pupils hoping to start their education in Merton appear to be becoming casualties in the war for school places.

Some have been turned down from local schools while others have chosen to apply out of the borough.

Concerned parents say the scramble for primary school places has never been so fierce.

And it is claimed popular schools are chronically oversubscribed and others are struggling to attract pupils following the changeover from a three to a two-tier structure.

The Local Education Authority (LEA) aims to send most pupils to one of their preferred schools, to enable all children to attend school near their home and, where possible, to allow pupils from the same family to go to the same school.

But some parents say while their children meet the criteria, they still have not been accepted at any of their chosen schools.

One Wimbledon parent said: "My son has been unable to secure a reception class place in any one of the five schools within the guaranteed one-mile rule."

The most popular schools tend to be the old first schools, with many Wimbledon classrooms at full capacity.

But at the other end of the scale Stanford, William Morris, Hillcross and Bushey have seen low applications for Year three and four places.

Documents given to us show that Wimbledon currently has 832 unfilled school places across the two years, although the LEA refused to comment on the figures.

Shadow education spokes-man Councillor Samantha George said: "Reorganisation was supposed to attract parents but these figures show little evidence of that happening."

Josephine Mahaffey, head of schools reorganisation, said all schools were engaged in marketing activities to boost numbers and standards were improving all the time.

She added: "We already have enhanced primary school facilities and 14 Merton schools recently received achievement awards for outstanding progress by the DfES."