Proposed changes to admissions to Ilkley Grammar School would be “fundamentally unfair” and lead to “lunatic situations” for privately educated pupils.

That is the view of the chairman of governors at Ghyll Royd School, in Burley-in-Wharfedale, over plans that could see independently educated children shunted down the priority list.

John Mitchell says Ghyll Royd and other local independent schools will fight the Bradford Council proposals – to use a state-only ‘feeder’ primary schools system for oversubscribed IGS – “to the end”.

And he claims the new admissions policy, if adopted, could lead to an unsustainable strain being placed on the area’s state primary schools.

He said: “We fully appreciate demand for places at IGS exceeds the supply, and that that has been excacerbated by the Government’s decision not to progress with the new-build.

“The fact there has to be some sort of filter for admissions is common sense, but the state-only feeder school system wouldn’t be fair, and could lead to students who live in Ilkley, only yards away from IGS, being denied a place – how can that be right?

“Bradford Council needs to come up with a ‘plan B’ that gets to the same objective through a fairer route. Whatever system they come up with has to not just work numerically, but to be fair.

“Because what is being proposed is not fair, we as an independent school will fight this to the end.

“In some areas, where there are only state schools, it would work but the Wharfe Valley isn’t like that. It’s an area well served by independent schools.

“Ghyll Royd, Westville House and Moorfield probably have 350 children between them and if they all suddenly jumped ship to go into primary schools, because their parents thought that would help them get into IGS, then the state couldn’t handle it.

“So in a way we’re actually helping the situation, but we’ll be discriminated against by this feeder system. None of the independents will accept this.”

He also believes the ‘named state schools plus priority areas’ system being considered could be open to legal challenges for being discriminatory – a belief shared by the leader of Bradford Council’s Conservative group, Councillor Anne Hawkesworth (Con, Ilkley).

He said: “I actually think this idea of having feeder schools which excludes independent schools will be overturned by the Department for Education, which is under enormous pressure to scrap it.

“It’s also quite wrong to assume the parents of a child who goes to an independent school are necessarily well-off. Some are working people who have decided to make a lot of sacrifices to give their children the best start in terms of education.

“At Ghyll Royd there are many different reasons why parents have their children with us, and not one of them ever envisaged making that choice would lead to a situation where they would be disadvantaging themselves if their aspiration was to go to IGS. We’ve got the right to appeal and that’s what we’ll be doing.”

The consultation on the proposed changes to admissions for IGS runs until January 21.

Ghyll Royd, Westville House and Moorfield schools educate children up to secondary school age.