THE difficulties faced by local authorities in capping school numbers is illustrated by the case of Scott Greig and his 11-year-old daughter Robyn.

Mr Greig took Inverclyde Council to court after they refused Robyn a place in S1 at Greenock Academy after putting a cap on the number of new pupils.

The reason for the move was to ensure that a planned new school, from the merger of Greenock Academy and Gourock High School, will not be over-subscribed in future.

However, a sheriff has ruled that the law governing placing requests only applies to the school a pupil is trying to get into, and could not be applied to a different school.

The ruling has seriously undermined Inverclyde's policy of capping the intake of both Greenock Academy and Gourock High School, at least in the short term, and could leave them with a big problem when the new school is built.

However, Mr Greig is delighted. "I was very pleased. My whole life has been put on hold for the past few months when we knew we had to fight this. We felt that it was unfair that we couldn't get into the school because it is closest to us and Robyn's older sister Nicole goes there already.

"I understand what the council were trying to do for the new school, but I feel the pupil numbers they were quoting for the new school, and therefore the cap, were far too low."

Iain Nisbet, a solicitor with the education law unit at Govan Law Centre in Glasgow, which represented Mr Greig, said the judgment was a "major headache" to councils embarking on school closure and building programmes.