Huge numbers of extra school admission appeals were lodged by dissatisfied parents in Bradford, according to official figures for the last academic year.

Appeals were up 23 per cent and appeal hearings increased by 15.7 per cent on the previous year, the data released by the Department of Education shows.

Some 2,090 appeals were lodged to contest children’s allocated places at primary schools. Sixty per cent of those were heard by independent appeals panels.

A further 1,413 appeals were submitted to contest applications for secondary school places. Some 81.5 per cent of appeals went before panels.

There was a higher success rate for parents winning primary school appeals – 27 per cent were upheld, up from 22.2 per cent.

For the second successive year, 21 per cent of secondary school appeals were upheld.

Figures revealed by Bradford Council in January show the number of appeals was expected to swell for next year. Since last April, 1,902 appeals had been heard by appeals panels at a cost of £67,558.

By the start of this year the Council had spent an estimated £206,369 on appeals since September, 2007. Last year’s volume of appeals, the number of new pupils and the movements of families within the district saw 15 primary and two secondary schools create emergency extra capacity. Some class sizes ballooned to more than 30 pupils as a result.

Almost 700 extra places are being created at primary schools across the district by September, 2011, while 200 additional places are earmarked for nine secondaries as part of their remodelling under the Council’s Building Schools for the Future programme.

Labour Councillor Ralph Berry, the Council’s executive member for children and young people, said: “We need to ensure that the plans for increasing the capacity to match the rising child population are carried through and press for the Government to honour agreements to increase need.

“Bradford has a unique population growth issue at the moment and I’m looking to make sure this issue is a high priority for us.” Councillor Adrian Naylor, education spokesman for the Council’s Conservative group, said: “Educ-ation has always been the Conservative group’s number one priority for the district and we will support any measures that increase the general attainment across all schools in the district.”