Catchment areas for popular primary schools in north Bristol have been scrapped.

The catchment system, which was only used in Bristol for allocating places to children at seven schools, will be axed from September 2010.

It has been scrapped following a complaint from a parent who was unsuccessful in winning a place for his infant at any of the schools near his home in Henleaze last year.

The change will end anomalies such as a child living very close to a school but failing to get a place.

However, it will not make any difference to the shortage of primary places in areas of high demand.

Catchment areas, or "areas of first responsibility", for Bishop Road, Colston's, Stoke Bishop, Westbury-on-Trym and Westbury Park primaries and Elmlea and Henleaze infants have been dropped, bringing the schools in line with all other community and Church of England primaries in the city.

Children in care and those with special needs have first priority for places, followed by those with brothers or sisters already at the school.

After that, allocation of places is decided on a simple distance measurement where those closest to the school – in a straight line – get in.

This has not been the case up to now, as the schools are not all in the centre of their areas of priority, meaning that someone living within the priority area could be given a place ahead of someone living closer to the school but outside the priority area.

The change is prompted by a ruling last year by the Schools Adjudicator, an independent overseer of school admissions arrangements.

Dan Preddy, one of dozens of parents who were unsuccessful in obtaining a place for their child in any of the schools in the Henleaze area last year, had complained to the adjudicator about the rules.

The adjudicator did not find the Bristol system unfair but commented: "It does... seem anomalous to operate a system relying on priority areas knowing that the schools are unlikely to be able to accommodate a significant number of the children living within those areas.

"This undermines one of the main benefits of priority areas, namely that they assist parents in being able to assess whether they have a real chance of being offered a place at a particular school."

The areas in question, the adjudicator acknowledged, had been in place for many years and demographics in the area and the popularity of schools had changed in the past decade.

Following the adjudication, the council carried out a consultation on dropping the areas and Bristol's admissions forum decided on the change.

More than a dozen schools have made extra classes available this year after unprecedented demand for reception places.

Many parents in the Bishopston area found they had not been successful in gaining a place this September at their first three school choices until schools agreed to expand.

Liz Haydon-Turner's son Sam, four, has now been offered place at Sefton Park School. Mrs Haydon-Turner, 35, a solicitor of Bishopston, is a member of the Bristol Primary Allocation Crisis Group set up by parents earlier this year.

She said the new method of allocating places would still leave parents not knowing if they lived close enough to their preferred school in any given year.

She said: "We are back to square one. In our case my son would have got into Bishop Road School straight away under the new allocation system because we live 300 metres from the school.

"Our son did not get a place at Bishop Road, Sefton Park or Ashley Down initially. It has been incredibly stressful.

"If it comes down to distance it is not going to shift the problem. Ashley Down's catchment area was 770m last year and this year it is 348m.

"It halved because of the increasing population with children of primary school age."

Doug Woods of Woods Estate Agents in Westbury-on-Trym said parents were prepared to pay 10 per cent more than the market price for a home near popular schools.

He said: "There is no doubt whatsoever that catchment areas affect the desirability of property.

"To be close to a popular school with a good reputation parents are willing to pay a premium.

"It's no longer location, location, location, it's school, school, school."