A MOTHER has said that the ongoing problems with secondary school places for Colney Heath children risks tearing the village community apart. Lisa Chaplin s 10-year-old son Cameron is one of eight children in the village allocated Onslow St Audrey s in Ha

A MOTHER has said that the ongoing problems with secondary school places for Colney Heath children risks tearing the village community apart.

Lisa Chaplin's 10-year-old son Cameron is one of eight children in the village allocated Onslow St Audrey's in Hatfield, which is four bus rides or a 45 minute walk away.

That is despite an appeal panel ruling in 2008 that the route to the school from Colney Heath was "illogical."

Cameron's chosen schools were Marlborough, Sandringham and Dame Alice Owen's in Potters Bar but the Colney Heath children allocated Onslow St Audrey's had varying preferences.

Mrs Chaplin, who has three other younger sons, spoke on behalf of all of the families affected when she said that the children would need to leave at 7.10am every morning to get to school on time.

She said that would make the children's day "massively long" and tiring.

Mrs Chaplin, from Roestock Lane, believes that the problem has the potential to tear the close village community apart.

She said: "Parents in the playground are saying that they are going to have to sell up and move because of this. But the community should not be ripped apart because we can't get our children into the schools we have asked for. We live in the St Albans district and we should be entitled to a St Albans school.